ALTERNATIVE FUEL

The Honda Civic Hybrid.

It claims to have an exceptional fuel economy of 40 miles/gallon in the city and 45 miles/gallon in highway driving.

This car is certified as AT-PZEV (Advanced Technology Partial Zero-Emission Vehicle). What this means is:

" This vehicle category was created as part of a bargain with the California Air Resources Board (CARB), so that the automobile manufacturers could postpone producing mandated zero emission vehicles (ZEVs), which will require the production of electric vehicles or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

The vehicles constructed to meet the PZEV requirements also fall within the Super Ultra Low Emission Vehicles (SULEV)-category. Various techniques are used to reduce pollution in these vehicles. In order to qualify as a PZEV, a vehicle must meet the SULEV standard and, in addition, have zero evaporative emissions from its fuel system plus an extended (15-year/150,000-mile) warranty on its emission-control components, which incidentally covers the propulsion electrical components of a hybrid electric vehicle." Copyright by wikipedia.org/wiki/PZEV

Since California's air is highly polluted compared to the rest of the nations the state is very strict in regulating the emission of new cars. Even in New York you will see the sticker of cars in the showroom stating that they passed California Emission Standard. If you buy a non hybrid car with this sticker then you cannot fail the emission test at DMV car inspection.