Car: EPA 🇺🇸

💡 High-Level Description:

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the United States has a long-standing tradition of overseeing and addressing the environmental impacts stemming from various industrial sectors. Within the realm of transportation, the car sector holds prominence due to its vast reach and consequential emissions. Recognizing the need to curb emissions from cars, the EPA devised a robust methodology to estimate and monitor CO2 emissions from automotive sources.

EPA's approach to the car sector isn't just about numbers; it integrates a holistic view, considering elements such as vehicle design, fuel type, driving conditions, and even technological innovations in emission control. The underlying goal of this methodology is not only to measure but also to incentivize the adoption of cleaner and more efficient automotive technologies. By ensuring a precise evaluation of emissions, the EPA aims to influence policy and regulatory measures, promoting a sustainable transportation future for the country.

Sample API Request

{
    "expand": [
        "items"
    ],
    "items": [
        {
            "type": "car",
            "external_reference": "test_3",
            "origin": "Menton, France",
            "destination": "Paris, France",
            "manufacturer": "mercedes_benz",
            "model": "500sel",
            "model_year": 1985,
            "fuel_type": "regular_gasoline",
            "epa_vehicle_size_class": "midsize_cars",
            "specific_transmission": "automatic_4_spd",
            "engine_displacement_in_liters": 5.0,
            "epa_model_type_index": 27914,
            "engine_cylinders": 8,
            "methodology": "US-EPA"
        }
    ]
}

API Request Items

• "type": "car" (required)

• "methodology": "US-EPA" (required)

• "external_reference": A unique identifier that helps you link the resulting emissions to the requested item. Especially useful if multiple items are requested since SQUAKE cannot guarantee to keep the same order. The maximum length is 128 characters.

• "origin": SQUAKE will try to resolve the origin/destination regardless of its format. Ideally, for addresses use the Post standard, for airports use IATA/ICAO code (format: ^[A-Z]{3,4}$, e.g., "MUC"), for other locations used in trade and transportation use UN/LOCODE codes (format: ^[A-Z]{2}\W?[A-Z2-9]{3}$, e.g., "DEHAM"). You can also pass lat/long (format: ^[-+]?\d{1,3}\.\d{1,10}\s?,\s?[-+]?\d{1,3}\.\d{1,10}$, e.g., "+40.712,-74.006").

• "destination": SQUAKE will try to resolve the origin/destination regardless of its format. Ideally, for addresses use the Post standard, for airports use IATA/ICAO code (format: ^[A-Z]{3,4}$, e.g., "MUC"), for other locations used in trade and transportation use UN/LOCODE codes (format: ^[A-Z]{2}\W?[A-Z2-9]{3}$, e.g., "DEHAM"). You can also pass lat/long (format: ^[-+]?\d{1,3}\.\d{1,10}\s?,\s?[-+]?\d{1,3}\.\d{1,10}$, e.g., "+40.712,-74.006").

• "distance_in_km": Prioritized over origin and destination. If you don't have a distance_in_km, you can use origin and destination and the distance will be automatically resolved. If you pass both distance_in_km and origin/destination, then distance_in_km will be used.

• "fuel_type": EPA accepts electricity, premium_gasoline, regular_gasoline, diesel, natural_gas, midgrade_gasoline, or propane.

• "manufacturer": See the database
• "model": See the database
• "model_year": See the database
• "country": Two-letter or three-letter code as defined in ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 and alpha-3 respectively. Minimum length is 2, maximum length is 3. Format should match the following pattern: ^[A-Z]{2,3}$.

• "electric_energy_consumption_in_kw": See the database
• "engine_capacity_in_cubic_cm": See the database
• "engine_cylinders": See the database
• "epa_model_type_index": See the database
• "engine_displacement_in_liters": See the database
• "specific_transmission": See the database
• "epa_vehicle_size_class": EPA size class has a specific division of car sizes according to US-EPA. See the database

Default values:

• "fuel_type": "regular_gasoline"

Sample API Response

{
    "carbon_quantity": 345527,
    "carbon_unit": "gram",
    "items": [
        {
            "carbon_quantity": 345527,
            "carbon_unit": "gram",
            "external_reference": "test_3",
            "type": "car",
            "methodology": "US-EPA",
            "distance": 876.0,
            "distance_unit": "kilometer"
        }
    ]
}

Bibliography

• FuelEconomy.gov Web Services (n.d.). FuelEconomy. Retrieved from https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/ws/index.shtml#vehicle

• Greenhouse Gas Emissions from a Typical Passenger Vehicle (n.d.). United States Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-typical-passenger vehicle#:~:text=typical%20passenger%20vehicle%3F-,A%20typical%20passenger%20vehicle%20emits%20about%204.6%20metric%20tons%20of,around%2011%2C500%20miles%20per%20year

• Tiseo, I. (2021, December 14). Passenger car carbon dioxide emissions worldwide 2010-2020. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1107970/carbon-dioxide-emissions-passenger-transport/#:~:text=Passenger%20cars%20produced%20approximately%20three,of%203.2%20million%20metric%20tons

• Emission Factors for Greenhouse Gas Inventories (2025, Jan). EPA. Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/climateleadership/ghg-emission-factors-hub