Emissions Compliance and Vehicle Choice

Policy Position

SEMA is committed to ensuring that specialty automotive aftermarket businesses are taking the proper steps to be emissions-compliant with state and federal regulations.

At the same time, SEMA seeks a regulatory landscape at the state and federal levels that preserves vehicle choice, the rights of vehicle owners nationwide, and the ability of the automotive aftermarket industry to innovate and deliver ingenious new products to the market.

SEMA is committed to playing a central role in the evolution of automotive technology, including the parts and products that power our vehicles. However, SEMA strongly opposes government mandates that prohibit or limit the sale of ICE vehicles and select electrification as the technology of choice to the detriment of many of our members and their innovations.

It is crucial for government policy to remain technology-neutral in pursuit of reducing carbon emissions from motor vehicles. There are many options on the road to reducing emissions. American-grown biofuels, synthetic fuels, hydrogen, and innovations in engine systems and fuels are all aimed at this shared goal.

At the federal level…

SEMA works with its member companies to understand their obligations under the federal Clean Air Act and comply with all laws and regulations in the most cost-effective and efficient manner. SEMA opposes efforts to mandate singular technologies, like electric vehicles, in the name of reducing emissions, waging fights in the courts and Congress to preserve vehicle choice.

At the state level…

Each state has its own laws and regulations, but one state in particular – California – plays an outsized role in setting emissions standards, of which automotive businesses need to be aware. Because of California's own emissions requirements, SEMA works closely with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) in an ongoing effort to ensure emissions related aftermarket parts meet applicable clean-air standards after parts have been installed in a vehicle. At the same time, SEMA regularly challenges California's regulatory overreach that would hinder the aftermarket's ability to innovate and bring legal products to market.

SEMA's Role

SEMA's suite of emissions resources and tools are always available to SEMA members. SEMA has invested over $30 million in the past ten years to help the aftermarket industry with emissions compliance. SEMA has two SEMA Garage locations – Diamond Bar, Calif., and Plymouth, Mich. – with each offering a suite of aftermarket product testing optimized with state-of-the-art testing equipment. SEMA has made it its mission to hire experienced professional emissions staff to educate the industry and its members on emissions issues and the need for compliance.

The SEMA Certified Emissions program makes it possible for specialty automotive parts manufacturers to meet the legal requirement for emissions compliance under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Tampering Policy. SEMA Certified Emissions enables manufacturers to verify that a product meets the EPA's “reasonable basis” criteria and is therefore legal for sale in 49 states.

In California, SEMA works with CARB to issue Executive Orders (EO), written documentation for certifying aftermarket parts comply with CARB emissions regulations. EOs effectively allow the legal sale and use of the product in all 50 states.

Over the last ten years, SEMA has assisted with approximately 50% of all aftermarket EOs issued by CARB, and its compliance team has completed over 800 CARB EO applications for members. The SEMA Garage helps our member companies and other aftermarket businesses to test and sell emissions-compliant products.

BACKGROUND

California's Advanced Clean Cars II (ACC II) regulation sought to require all new vehicles sold to be zero emissions by 2035 and mandated that an increasing percentage of new vehicles sold must be zero-emission vehicles, starting in model year '26, when 35% of new vehicles were required to meet this standard.

SEMA spearheaded a national campaign to stop this California-led effort, which was in effect an EV mandate and ICE vehicle ban for 40% of the nation's population via the state's Clean Cars II regulation.

In June 2025, President Trump signed three Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions into law that stopped California from implementing electric vehicle mandates for motor vehicles and heavy-duty trucks, while also addressing NOX standards for nonroad vehicles. SEMA was integral in Congressional passage of H.J. Res. 88, a CRA resolution that revoked the 2024 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) waiver that previously enabled the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to implement the Advanced Clean Cars II (ACC II) regulation.

California's regulation had national reach and would have impacted more than 40% of the U.S. population -- 11 states and the District of Columbia signed on to adopt ACC II. Public Law No. 119-16 stops California and other states from implementing the EV mandates in ACC II, marking a significant shift in U.S. automotive policy and a major win for the specialty automotive aftermarket.

In the effort to secure passage of the CRA resolution for ACC II, SEMA reached more than 2 million voters via digital ads, generated over 56,000 letters to members of Congress, built a coalition of small businesses opposed to EV mandates, and was active in the media to tell the automotive aftermarket's story.

SEMA President & CEO Mike Spagnola and four SEMA members in 2024 testified before the EPA in opposition to the regulation. In July 2022, SEMA submitted comments opposing the ACC II proposal to CARB.