Tesla says EPA must be more aggressive on US vehicle emission standards

Tesla has urged the US government to impose significantly stricter heavy-duty vehicle emissions limits than those proposed in April, saying the proposed standards are much weaker than the EV maker’s own production plans.

According to Reuters, Tesla said the EPA didn’t go far enough and the standards should be as stringent as California’s truck emissions regulations and eliminate loophole credits.

California unanimously approved its Advanced Clean Fleets rule last month. The new law requires all new medium and heavy-duty vehicles sold or registered in California to be zero-emission by 2036, and will ban new diesel trucks from ports and railyards from 2024. A bold and aggressive move considering how many trucks visit shipping ports and railyards.

According to Reuters Tesla said the EPA should “actively embrace a more rapid transition to (battery electric vehicles)” adding “the time for doing so is now.”

Tesla says if the EPA’s rule isn’t tightened, it would fail to put the heavy-duty sector on a path to full electrification or sufficiently reduce U.S. emissions and therefore “would not meet the legal benchmark of the Clean Air Act to protect the nation’s public health and welfare.”

EPA said on Tuesday it plans to post a response to all comments received. The comment period closed on Friday.

Under the its emissions standard proposal in April, the EPA says just 25% of new long-haul trucks will be fully electric by 2032.

In its comments to the proposal Tesla cited its Tesla Semi production forecast of 50,000 per year beginning in late 2024.

“Reaching the 50,000 annual production level would amount to 20% of all annual sales in (model year) 2027. This means Tesla’s production goal alone would far exceed the 5% EV sales deployment EPA anticipates in 2027.”

All countries should be scaling up ambitions on decarbonising transport

In recent weeks we’ve seen alarming average global sea and air temperature data which is smashing records. Global warming is now happening much faster than scientists predicted with new projections suggesting the world could hit an average global temperature increase of 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels as soon as 2027.

Polar sea ice is also melting much faster than predicted with some scientists saying the world could experience its first ice-free arctic summer within five years.

If global warming is now happening much faster than predicted, governments need to escalate their response accordingly and this means being more aggressive on cutting transport emissions which make up around 20% of global emissions.

Governments must dial up their climate policies now to limit further damage to the earth’s climate.