LEV "low emission" vehicles, Acura TSX vs. Prius

[cwerdna]

Hey Alex and Kevin,

I enjoy the diggnation podcast as always, but I just wanted to point out what "Low Emission Vehicle" really means. If you go to http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/sbs.htm you can compare emissions of vehicles. If you go there, compare an 07 Prius and Acura TSX and click on Show Detailed Air Pollution Information, you'll see that the TSX emits 7.2 tons/year of greenhouse gasses vs. 3.4 tons for a Prius. You'll notice that the California versions of the Prius and TSX get air pollution scores of 9.5 and 6 respectively.

If you click on LEV II, it'll take you to http://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/detailedchart.pdf. Look on page 3 to see what the limits are for each pollutants or look below.

For LEV II, the max allowed grams/mile are:
NOx 0.07
NMOG 0.090
CO 4.2
PM 0.01
HCHO 0.018

For PZEV/SULEV II (what the Prius is), it's
NOx 0.02
NMOG 0.010
CO 1.0
PM 0.01
HCHO 0.004

So, you can see that cars like the Prius put out a lot less of each pollutant. I might be wrong on this, but I believe all light and light duty vehicles sold now in Cali ALL are part of the LEV II program and therefore have a ZEV, PZEV, SULEV or LEV score of some sort.

[magunwarrior]

Jesus, more about the god damn hybrids.

[bman]

What is the point of this thread, anyone can figure those out. It wasen't that important of a discussion in that episode lol, I thought i was just funny, any of these kinds of cares does alright, so meh.

[noxdineen]

Veggie diesel conversion on a Golf TDI FTW!

[cwerdna]

Veggie diesel conversion on a Golf TDI FTW!
That's supposed to be clean? From http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/2001car1tablef.jsp?column=1&id=21884, the 06 VW Golf diesel (there's no 07) isn't available in CA and gets a TERRIBLE Bin 10 national rating corresponding to the limits of:
NOx 0.60
NMOG 0.156
CO 4.2
PM 0.08
HCHO 0.018

If you want to run biodiesel and care about your warranty, don't run anymore than a mix of 5% biodiesel (B5) purchased from a commercial retail pump "that meets the latest biodiesel industry specifications (ASTM D6751)" per http://www.vw.com/contactus/faqs.html#5.1.

[cwerdna]

What is the point of this thread, anyone can figure those out. It wasen't that important of a discussion in that episode lol, I thought i was just funny, any of these kinds of cares does alright, so meh.
It's that it was misleading to claim that an Acura TSX w/a mere LEV (low emission vehicle) rating is really all that low an emitter. The rating of 6 aka LEV II corresponds to he 2nd lowest out of 6 possible ratings for light duty vehicles and light duty trucks (aka pickup, minivan, van, SUV up to 8500 pounds GVWR).

From what I can tell, ALL current vehicles sold in California have an LEV (II) label or BETTER.