I have just learned that the Prius is classified as a ULEV in Canada but an SULEV in the USA. Is this a result of different standards for the classifications in the two countries, of different engines or catalytic converters on the cars sold in the two countries, or of some other, less obvious difference? Clarification would be much appreciated from anyone who knows more about it than I...

In Message 4146 n57er asked:<br>&gt; I have just learned that the Prius is <br>&gt; classified as a ULEV in Canada but an SULEV in <br>&gt; the USA.<br>&lt;snip&gt;<br>&gt;Clarification would be much appreciated from anyone who knows more about it than I... <br>Same car - different "yardstick" or different folks holding the "yardstick". Think the parable of the three blind men examining an elephant. . .<br><br>AFAIK - the "S" in SULEV is a California thingie which means that SULEV may, or may not be a U.S. designation depending on how you look at it. :-)<br><br>ee_of_ee could provide the TRUE skinny here...<br><br>Bill Powell<br>(Prius: Great Trunk Space!)<br>&lt;sorry... I couldn't help myself...&gt;

The cars are identical. Canada does not have a SULEV rating. ULEV is the highest. I'm sure that this is about to change.

As Bill Powell writes, its a California thing. Kinda. In 2001, the cleanest non-zero emission standard in CA was SULEV, but for Federal (less a couple states that adopted CA) the cleanest standard was the old CA ULEV. Since Canada uses US federal they too had ULEV as cleanest, non-zero. In the future the feds have a new rule called Tier 2 which has lots of new standards including one numerically equal to the CA SULEV. However, since the feds call it Tier 2, bin 2 I'm inclined to still use SULEV. <br><br>For 2001 all North American Pruis vehicles have the same logic and hardware and therefore the same emissions performance, except for local fuel variations, but that gets even more complicated. <br><br>Dave

It appears from the warranty book that there is a small list of emissions related items that get longer coverage in California and the other 2 SULEV aware states. So even though the cars are manufactured and programmed identically there appears to be a slight logistical difference between the SULEV Prius in CA, MA and NY and the ULEV Prius in the rest of the US and Canada. It seems pretty unlikely that these systems would fail between the two warranty periods, and an even smaller chance that they'd fail just enough to make the car not SULEV in CA but still pass emission requirements in the other states. But a non-zero probability is enough to trigger mounds of legalese :-)<br><br>Just guessing.<br><br>Robert Snyder<br>NJ-PIKACHU