The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that General Motors (GM) has agreed to retire approximately 50 million metric tons (megagrams) of greenhouse gas credits to resolve excess CO₂ emissions identified through EPA’s light-duty vehicle in-use testing program. This agreement is the result of an EPA investigation that identified excess CO₂ emissions from approximately 5.9 million 2012-2018 model year (MY) GM vehicles currently in use.

EPA light-duty vehicle standards are designed to ensure that vehicles on the road conform to the emissions performance asserted by manufacturers during EPA’s certification process. Automakers are required to test vehicles that have been on the road for one year and again at four years and submit those test results to EPA. EPA also conducts its own tests to ensure vehicles on the road are complying with emissions standards. Tests done by both EPA and GM showed the GM vehicles were emitting more than 10% higher CO₂ on average than GM’s initial GHG compliance reports claimed.

This action involves approximately 4.6 million 2012-2018 full size pickups and SUVs and approximately 1.3 million 2012-2018 midsize SUVs.

The in-use program is part of EPA’s work to ensure that the climate benefits of EPA’s vehicle standards are realized. That includes the recently finalized light-duty vehicle standards that are expected to avoid more than 7 billion tons of carbon emissions and provide nearly $100 billion of annual net benefits.