Does California have the most Environmentally Friendly Cars?
Having visited LA a few years ago, the first thing that struck me was how unnecessarily large, and overpowered most of the vehicles were.
On that basis alone, I would say no. Japanese or European Cars (if telling truth!) will have lower emissions!
Air Quality - 25% better than Europe, but worse than Japan.
Whilst we still try and measure end of pipe emissions, most environmental measure also considers the . . . environment. We measure quality of the air, California is no exception.
California aims to maintain an Average Annual Air Quality of 0.03ppm, or 30ug/m3. This is better than the European Air Quality Objective, set at 40ug/m3.
Japan have a Hourly Average Air Quality Objective set at 0.04 - 0.06ppm. This will result in annual average far lower than those found in california.
Efficiency
The wider use of diesel cars in Europe is not great. They produce a lot more pollution. Many smaller diesel cars will easily get 50 - 60 miles to the gallon, which would meet the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards of 54.5 miles to the gallon. Despite giving off very high NOx, and PArticulate Emissions.
Emission Control
So let us compare actual emissions standards, I will compare two countries:
Japan
California
Europe
Now there is a lot to go through in these tables, the units are all different as are the substances measured. But dwelling on NOX:
California has a NOx limit of 0.05 grams per mile, or 0.03 grams per kilometer
European Cars have a NOx limit of 0.06 grams per kilometer
Japanese cars have a NOx limit of 0.05 grams per kilometer
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