The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has adopted final Phase 3 greenhouse gas emission standards for heavy-duty vehicles, proposed in April 2023, to achieve domestic and international climate goals by requiring manufacturers to deploy more efficient vehicles beginning in model year 2027, including more efficient internal combustion engines and electric drive powertrains.
The rule was finalized at the end of a multi-year effort by the Biden Administration to accelerate the decarbonization of bus and truck fleets following its adoption of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022.
The rule sets new requirements for manufacturers to meet with low-cost vehicle efficiency technologies, including more efficient engines, advanced transmissions, vehicle weight reductions, and improved vehicle aerodynamics. Manufacturers are expected to implement zero-emission vehicles, with more than 200 models currently available.
The adoption will enable the transition from large internal combustion engines (ICE) to electric vehicles (EVs). The future heavy-duty vehicle fleet is predicted to produce 1 billion fewer metric tons of CO2 between 2027 and 2055, resulting in over $22 billion in annualized net benefits from premature deaths and other clean air and climate benefits when combined with the 2023 NOx engine standard.
The EPA has issued various announcements for cleaner trucks and buses in the US, including a 2023 heavy-duty engines and vehicles standard to control criteria pollutant emissions, clean school bus grants, a new clean ports program, and a shared all-of-government national zero-emission freight corridor strategy to focus on deploying infrastructure along key freight hubs.
The announcement not only completes the EPA’s Clean Trucks Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful air pollutants from heavy-duty trucks but also supports the agency’s final multi-pollutant standards for light- and medium-duty vehicles for model years 2027-2032.
