The nature of Honda is changing, according to Robert J. Bienenfeld, assistant vice president for Regulatory Policy at the American Honda Motor Co., Inc., with a goal of having two-thirds of sales being electrified vehicles by 2030, and overall support for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
It’s a policy, Bienenfeld said, which conflicts with current U.S. administrative intent, but which the company promotes regardless. They said that maintaining the stringency of existing standards through 2025, coupled with a bit of flexibility, would help promote advanced technologies and maintain consistency between federal standards and “Section 177” states.
“Honda continues to support one national program that aligns the regulations of EPA, NHTSA, and California,” Bienenfeld said in a letter. “To do so, we advocate maintaining the current standards that would raise the average fuel economy of the U.S. light-duty vehicle fleet to a projected 50.8 mpg by 2025 based on the current U.S. light-duty vehicle fleet mix. Importantly, we also seek the reinstatement of flexibilities that exist in the regulation today but that are mostly phased-out by 2021. These flexibilities were designed to incentivize advanced, electrified technologies, and we believe these technologies still need support for a few more years. In addition, Honda believes the EPA should eliminate automakers’ responsibility for the impact of upstream emissions from the electric grid (which currently phases in by 2025), and advocates for the accommodation of more off-cycle technologies, such as start-stop systems, that contribute to reduced fuel consumption but that are not fully accounted for in current EPA test procedures.”
The EPA will be proposing new standards for 2022-2025, during which environmental groups, the auto industry, and other stakeholders, along with the general public, will be able to comment. For Honda’s part, they hope to see existing fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions standards maintained through 2025.
“Based on our commitment to a future of low-carbon mobility and dramatically reduced greenhouse gases emissions, Honda will continue to work with other stakeholders to seek a path forward that preserves one strong national standard for our industry, and to help protect the environment through significant and ongoing reductions in GHG emissions,” Bienenfeld said.