By JOHN O'DELL, TIMES STAFF WRITER
General Motors Corp., this time with several allies, has renewed its attack on the California Zero-Emission Vehicle Mandate in a pair of lawsuits quietly filed earlier this month in state and federal courts in Fresno.
In another suit, filed last year in federal court in Sacramento, GM was the sole plaintiff. That suit was dismissed when the judge ruled it premature because the mandate hadn't taken effect.
This time, though, the world's largest auto maker has been joined by DaimlerChrysler, Isuzu Motor Co. and a group of San Joaquin Valley new-car dealers. The new federal suit, filed Jan. 3, argues that the so-called ZEV Mandate is an illegal effort by the California Air Resources Board to usurp federal regulation of auto makers' fuel economy standards. Isuzu is not a party to the federal action.
The state suit, filed the next day, claims CARB didn't provide auto makers adequate notice of several last-minute changes to the rules.
The mandate, which took effect this month, requires major auto makers to provide a mix of zero-emission vehicles and advanced-technology ultra-low-emission vehicles for sale in California beginning with the 2003 model year.
The original rules said the special vehicles must account for at least 10% of the passenger cars they sell in the state each year with true zero-emission vehicles accounting for at least 2%.
Isuzu, which sells only SUVs in the U.S., jumped in on the state suit because one of the changes lifts exemptions on light trucks and sport-utility vehicles starting next decade, requiring Isuzu to develop or acquire a zero-emissions vehicle of its own.
A second change GM and DaimlerChrysler found objectionable limits the auto industry's ability to use small, golf cart-like Neighborhood Electric Vehicles to offset requirements for full-service, freeway-legal electric vehicles.
GM and other auto makers have argued that the full-service electrics are expensive to build and must be subsidized to sell.
Using credits awarded for early introduction of cheaper neighborhood vehicles this year and next would greatly reduce the need to develop the full-service electrics--and DaimlerChrysler's GEM subsidiary is one of the biggest neighborhood electric-vehicle makers.
The auto companies' state suit also argues that CARB didn't conduct an adequate environmental evaluation of the effects of the ZEV Mandate and didn't demonstrate that the mandate is necessary to improve air quality in the state.
Environmentalists, who say they've been expecting the suit, disagree with the allegations, as does the CARB.
From Concept to Reality
Insiders at Ford say the company is seriously considering a U.S. version of the Fusion concept shown at the L.A. auto show earlier this month.
It's a four-seat sub-subcompact that uses a hybrid gas-electric power train.
The Fusion uses a so-called B platform, which makes it about a size-and-a-half smaller than Ford's compact Focus.
"A" and "B" platforms are used all over Asia and Europe but have long been considered too small for U.S. tastes.
Fusion, with styling that emulates an SUV, looks bigger than it is, though.
Auto industry executives in the U.S. are starting to wonder if the push for low-polluting cars could create interest in Fusion-sized vehicles here, especially in urban areas where traffic congestion that adds to the air pollution burden could be lessened if people drove smaller cars and trucks.
The Fusion was shown at L.A. and later at the Detroit show to gauge public interest, said Ford design chief J Mays.
And although Ford called it a concept, Mays said it is very close to
a real vehicle the company will unveil for the European market this year
at the Geneva auto show.