Canada announces alignment of emissions standards with US

wxman

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chucky2

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Too bad EU wouldn't align its gas standards with the US, and the US align its diesel standards with the EU. But hey, why makes things simpler for international engine manufacturers...
 

GoFaster

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Hopefully this leads to more choice on both sides of the border.
It won't make any difference. Canada's emission standards have always been aligned with US standards, with the only difference sometimes being differing implementation dates, or handling the complicated Tier II fleet-averaging provisions differently. Vehicles certified to US emission standards always meet Canadian standards and always have. (The reverse hasn't always been true, in cases where the Canadian implementation lagged behind - for example, our continued availability of the VW IDI diesels from '93 - '97 while they weren't available in the USA.)

This announcement is simply that this arrangement is going to continue as it always has.
 

davebugs

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Could have been worse. They could have gone directly to the California nutball standards immediately.
 

wxman

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Question for you wxman:

How much tougher is US Tier 3 than Euro VI for diesels?
The proposed Tier 3 standards will have a certification "bin" (Bin 160 - one of seven), which effectively equates to the current Tier 2 Bin 5. However, the vehicle fleet must average Bin 30 (i.e., the equivalent of Tier 2 Bin 2), so there probably will be very few vehicles that are certified to Bin 160 once the Tier 3 regulations are implemented.

The change for diesels from Tier 2 is that NMOG and NOx are now combined into a single standard (like Europe has been) which give the manufacturers of diesel cars more flexibility in meeting that standard (NOx is no longer distinctly regulated).

Here is a comparison of the proposed Tier 3 Bin 160 (the highest certification bin under Tier 3) and Euro 6...


(grams/mile)

Emission.................Tier 3 Bin 160...........................................Euro 6

NMOG+NOx................0.160....................................................0.274
CO...........................4.2.......................................................0.8
PM...........................0.003...................................................0.007


There's also a particle number (PN) Euro 6 standard of 6X10^11 particles/km (~2X10^12 particles/mile) which is probably much more restrictive than the PM mass standard (0.007 g/mi). EPA is not proposing a PN limit for Tier 3. There's also a NOx limit for diesels in Euro 6 (0.08 g/km = ~0.13 g/mi), but none for Tier 3.

The proposed Tier 3 regs also include supplemental FTP (SFTP) standards which regulate emissions in more aggressive test duty cycles (US06 and SC03); Euro 6 does not have supplemental standards.

More information can be found at http://www.dieselnet.com/standards/us/ld_t3.php#bins and http://www.dieselnet.com/standards/eu/ld.php#stds.
 

romad

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Could have been worse. They could have gone directly to the California nutball standards immediately.
Ah, that IS the new US standard; the Feds are adopting CARB's. So bottomline is that Canada is basically doing the same.
 

john.jackson9213

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Could have been worse. They could have gone directly to the California nutball standards immediately.
Romad is correct. The federal government has adopted California's standards. Nothing new or crazy about this. California has pushed the automobile industry forward for more than 50 years. And not just in cleaner auto emissions. It is called Market Power. We are a huge market that no auto maker can ignore.
 

rms85702

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Could have been worse. They could have gone directly to the California nutball standards immediately.
Yep... Lets just load our vehicles up with emissions crap that takes away MPGs so we burn more fuel. Brilliant. God, I'm so glad I live in a place where I don't have to deal with emission laws. :cool:
 

chucky2

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The proposed Tier 3 standards will have a certification "bin" (Bin 160 - one of seven), which effectively equates to the current Tier 2 Bin 5. However, the vehicle fleet must average Bin 30 (i.e., the equivalent of Tier 2 Bin 2), so there probably will be very few vehicles that are certified to Bin 160 once the Tier 3 regulations are implemented.

The change for diesels from Tier 2 is that NMOG and NOx are now combined into a single standard (like Europe has been) which give the manufacturers of diesel cars more flexibility in meeting that standard (NOx is no longer distinctly regulated).

Here is a comparison of the proposed Tier 3 Bin 160 (the highest certification bin under Tier 3) and Euro 6...


(grams/mile)

Emission.................Tier 3 Bin 160...........................................Euro 6

NMOG+NOx................0.160....................................................0.274
CO...........................4.2.......................................................0.8
PM...........................0.003...................................................0.007


There's also a particle number (PN) Euro 6 standard of 6X10^11 particles/km (~2X10^12 particles/mile) which is probably much more restrictive than the PM mass standard (0.007 g/mi). EPA is not proposing a PN limit for Tier 3. There's also a NOx limit for diesels in Euro 6 (0.08 g/km = ~0.13 g/mi), but none for Tier 3.

The proposed Tier 3 regs also include supplemental FTP (SFTP) standards which regulate emissions in more aggressive test duty cycles (US06 and SC03); Euro 6 does not have supplemental standards.

More information can be found at http://www.dieselnet.com/standards/us/ld_t3.php#bins and http://www.dieselnet.com/standards/eu/ld.php#stds.
Thank you for posting this!

Any idea why they didn't go with the PN limits like EU has done? It would seem to me like a good time to start normalizing between continents and I'm not sure why dropping the PN limit, especially in light of DI gasoline engines becoming far more common place, would be a good idea. Sometimes I get the sense that they'll allow gasoline a leg up to allow it to get better mpg, but they'll penalize diesel at the expense of diesel mpg. Seems...sort of messed up...

Chuck
 

wxman

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Location
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Thank you for posting this!

Any idea why they didn't go with the PN limits like EU has done? It would seem to me like a good time to start normalizing between continents and I'm not sure why dropping the PN limit, especially in light of DI gasoline engines becoming far more common place, would be a good idea. Sometimes I get the sense that they'll allow gasoline a leg up to allow it to get better mpg, but they'll penalize diesel at the expense of diesel mpg. Seems...sort of messed up...

Chuck
I agree. There's been an appearance of emission regulations being developed around the technical capabilities of gasoline engines ever since Tier 2/LEV II, and diesels are left to comply with those regulations by whatever means they can or be effectively banned from production.

As far as PN emission regulations are concerned, CARB initially proposed a number limit of 3X10^12 particles/mile, but that was withdrawn from the final regulation. By the way, 6X10^11 particles/km would be approximately equal to 1X10^12 particles/mile, not 2X10^12 particles/mile as posted earlier.

The one provision in Tier 3 (and LEV III) which I find most objectionable is that the "running loss" standard is unchanged from Tier 2/LEV II (0.05 g/mile). Running loss emissions are defined as evaporative hydrocarbons (VOCs) that are emitted when the vehicle is in operation (http://www.epa.gov/otaq/consumer/05-autos.pdf). So the regulatory agencies are requiring exhaust emissions of NMOG and NOx combined to be 0.03 g/mi fleet average, but allow a running loss VOC emission as high as 0.05 g/mile, or a total of 0.08 g/mi, and still be classified as "SULEV" and/or meet the fleet average requirement. Even without any evaporation control for the fuel system, diesel fuel has such low evaporation rate relative to gasoline that the VOC running loss emissions are in the noise level of the regulatory metric (calculated from EPA AP-42 data at 0.000107 g/mi for a Jetta TDI).

In my opinion, either the running loss needs to be significantly lowered for gassers in Tier 3, or a provision should be made for diesels allowing proportionally higher NMOG+NOx exhaust emissions.
 
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