The United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) has released new vehicle emission standards that impose additional limits on the emission of greenhouse gases. The newly imposed emission standards for light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicles would begin for the 2027 model year and are touted to produce significant reductions in climate and other harmful air pollution that will significantly improve air quality nationwide and result in considerable fuel savings along with lower vehicle maintenance costs.

The proposal includes a package of two separate regulations, one for light-duty vehicles and another for heavy-duty vocational vehicles. As explained in the Agency’s press release,

“…the ‘Multi-Pollutant Emissions Standards for Model Years 2027 and Later Light-
Duty and Medium Duty Vehicles,’ builds on EPA’s existing emissions standards for passenger cars and light trucks for MYs 2023 through 2026. The proposal retains the proven regulatory design of previous EPA standards for light-duty vehicles, but leverages advances in clean car technology to further reduce both climate pollution and smog- and soot-forming emissions.”

“… the ‘Greenhouse Gas Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles – Phase 3,’ would apply to heavy-duty vocational vehicles (such as delivery trucks, refuse haulers or dump trucks, public utility trucks, transit, shuttle, school buses) and trucks typically used to haul freight. These standards would complement the criteria pollutant standards for MY 2027 and beyond heavy-duty vehicles that EPA finalized in December 2022 and represent the third phase of EPA’s Clean Trucks Plan.”

More details can be found in the U.S. EPA’s press release. You can also watch U.S. EPA Administrator Michael Regan’s press conference on the new standards.