RV News Update: Now they say it’s not a “Ban” but may just be Motorhome “Unavailability”
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This week on the RV Podcast:
- We answer all your questions about the controversial clean air regulations in California that are threatening to limit the availability of all large motorhomes in a bunch of states starting next year.
- Is an all-electric, no water RV toilet right for you? Maybe… we’ll tell you the pros and cons
- Plus, the Social Media Buzz and your questions coming up in Episode #525 of the RV Podcast
You can watch the video version from our RV Lifestyle YouTube Channel by clicking the player below.
Click below for an audio player:
Weekly Update
As we’ve been reporting, a half dozen states have stringent clean air regulations threatening the availability of gas-and diesel-powered RVs built after Jan 1, 2025.
California, Washington, New York, Oregon, Massachusetts, and New Jersey are the states affected… though there is some indication this week that a few of those states may push back the effective date.
This all stems from California's Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) regulation, which, aims to increase the adoption of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) by requiring manufacturers of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles to sell a growing percentage of ZEVs each year. This initiative has raised concerns within the RV industry about its potential impact on motorhome sales.
Now, these rules are not directed at RV Companies, per se, but at the companies that provide the chassis on which those motorhomes are built. We’re talking all motorhomes, by the way, Class B, C, and A… and chassis using gas and diesel engines.
On Tuesday Dec. 3, the Recreational Vehicles Industry Association (the RVIA) held a webinar to try and aleve industry and consumer confusion and concern – you could say near panic – about these very complicated regulations.
The key takeaway is the industry, which had been claiming that these clean air regulations would create a motorhome sales ban, has now backed way off on the use of the word “ban.”
Instead, they are now saying after meetings with California officials that while sales and registrations of new motorhomes in California and the other states are not prohibited after Jan 1… the regulations “may affect the availability of motorhomes there.”
We’ve been extensively reporting this for a month now, and as the story has been picked up by major news outlets and the mainstream press, it’s become big news.
Despite Tuesday’s webinar and meetings between the RVIA and California clean air officials, there’s probably even more confusion now.
So in this episode of the podcast, I want to try and sort it all out by answering the many questions I can about what is now is no longer called the California Motorhome Ban by the RVIA but instead is now called a threat to the “availability” of motorhomes.
At the end of this update, I’ll tell you of two more complications involving the RV industry and California’s clean air regulators. So stay tuned for that. And Jennifer will join me after this update for the rest of the podcast.
So. here are the questions I’m getting the most.
Q: Does the ACT regulation explicitly ban the sale of new motorhomes in California?
A: No, the ACT regulation does not explicitly ban new motorhome sales. The word ban is not used. And the RVIA, as I just noted, has backed away from using that word. However, there are a lot of people who are saying the practical effect of the ACT regulations will result in a de-facto ban. It mandates that manufacturers of vehicles over 8,500 pounds gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) must meet specific Zero Emission Valie sales targets. Since suitable zero-emission chassis for motorhomes are currently unavailable, chassis manufacturers say they will have to stop sending their internal combustion engine (ICE) motorhome chassis to California, effectively limiting the availability of new motorhomes in that state and the other states that have the ACT regulations.
Q: Which other states are adopting similar regulations?
A: In addition to California, states such as Oregon, Washington, New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts have adopted similar regulations effective in 2025. This means the impact on motorhome availability could extend beyond California to these states as well. A bunch of other states are poised to adopt similar regulations in 2026 and 2027.
Q: If this is all coming from California, why are all these other states involved:
A: Because of a little known provision of Section 177 of the federal Clean Air Act that regulates air emissions. That provision specifically states that California is the only state authorized to set vehicle emission standards and other states wanting to adopt their own such regulations can do so only if they are identical to California's.
However, here’s a chip in the California armor that came out of the RVIA webinar, while the other states must have the same requirements, they do have the authority to delay or phase in the dates that the regulations take effect. Oregon and a couple of the other states are supposedly considering just that.
Q: Just what is the issue here? Don’t RV chassis makers know EVs are the future?
A: They do know this but unlike the automobile industry, they don’t have the capabilities or the credits to meet the California clean air regulations, which state internal combustion vehicle manufacturers are required to have increasing percentages of EVs each year. The bigger the percentage, the more “credits” the regulation gives them to allow sales.
Winnebago, Thor, and others have tinkered around with EV motorhomes, but none are ready for the marketplace. Thor is close with a hybrid that they unveiled at the recent Elkhart Dealer Open House.
EV campervans are also a couple of years from production, but the technology for bigger Class As and Super Cs just isn't anywhere near ready for that to happen.
Unlike the auto industry, which has had EVs on the market for years and thus has plenty of those “credits” needed to sell, the chassis manufacturers for big Class A and Class C motorhomes have no such credits they can use. Thus, they can’t sell under the current regulations.
However, there is a three-year deficit make-up period allowed by the California law that manufacturers can use to offset those goals.
It's kind of like you’re told by the doctor that you must lose 30 pounds over the next three years. You could lose 10 each year or delay until the third year when you have to lose all 30. Whether you do it all at once, or a little at a time, the deal is you have to lose all 30 in three years.
I told you this was complicated and confusing.
Q: How is the RV industry now responding to this situation?
A: The RVIA says it has been actively engaging with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to seek exemptions or delays in implementing the ACT regulation for motorhomes. Discussions are ongoing, with further meetings planned to explore potential solutions.
They have another meeting in the next week or so.
But right now, the RVIA is backing way off their rather panicked earlier depictions of this as a ban. In fact, the spokesperson I talked to after the webinar even went so far as to claim that “this doesn't directly impact consumers.”
Huh? How can something that is expected to affect the availability of RVs NOT affect consumers?
Motorhomes can still be sold and registered in California after 2025, the spokespersons said. That’s because of the RV industry's model year practices. A 2025 motorhome, for example, is most often actually built on a 2024 chassis.
So, motorhomes built on chassis made after Jan 1 won’t likely start showing up on dealer lots until the Spring of 2025… if, that is, chassis manufacturers can decipher all those confusing regulations and work around that weird three-year deficit make-up period.
But as we have clearly heard from the chassis manufacturers, at present, they can not comply with those California ACT regulations.
Q: What are the potential consequences if nothing changes?
A: Without exemptions, the availability of new motorhomes in California and other states with similar regulations could be significantly restricted starting in 2025 – despite what the RVIA claims when it says “this does not directly impact consumers.”
So, while the RVIA spin says, “there is nothing that stops a consumer from registering a motorhome in California or any of the other states adopting the ACT regulation,” my translation of their gobblegook says that only is true IF they can find a motorhome there.
In the very same statement they gave me and I just quoted, they concede the “availability of motorhomes may be impacted” by these requirements.
Confused? Welcome to the club.
So.. the situation remains dynamic, with ongoing discussions between industry stakeholders and regulatory agencies.
We’ll let you know how it all shakes out.
RV CONVERSATION OF THE WEEK
We recently posted a video review of a new B+ motorhome made by Embassy RV called the Cape Cod.
In that video, we showed the bathroom and a very different toilet called the Laveo.
We've all heard of black tank horror stories, be it a hose “explosion” at the dump station, an unpleasant odor from the RV toilet black tank, or a pyramid that causes, let's just say, a bit of a problem. This Laveo toilet solves those issues because it completely eliminates your need for a blank tank completely?
We are not talking about composting toilets or cassette toilets.
The Laveo is a waterless RV toilet by a Connecticut-based company called Dry-Flush. This toilet collects waste in what looks like a foil-lined toilet, with each flush tightly wrapping waste in what reminds me of the Diaper Genie, a device used for soiled baby diapers.
Many viewers of that review we just did on the Embassy Cape Cod have asked for more info so we figured all that interest warranted a replay of an interview we did a while back with the president and owner of the company, Douglas Rice.
Be sure to listen to the interview on the podcast or watch the video version to see it in action! Click the players above.
SOCIAL MEDIA BUZZ – Wendy Bowyer
Wendy Bowyer reports on the hot issues most talked about this past week on social media and our RV Lifestyle Community group.
In our RVLifestyle Community's General Discussion Space we recently asked: What's a camping mishap you can now laugh about?
This kind of post is the BEST because everyone has something they did that was not funny at the time, but now is definitely worthy of a few chuckles.
Take Matthew. He said during their shakedown trip in their first RV, they didn't know how to turn on the propane valve. So they camped with no heat, no hot water, and it was a miserable weekend. When they returned and took it to the dealership's service department to learn – it was user error.
For Mark, on the last morning of their first trip in a new motorhome, he started to pull out of a campsite that had a beautiful palm tree in the corner. BUT he had accidentally left the awning out, causing it to hit the tree. It was completely destroyed. Mark ended up cutting the awning off and had to do the “walk of shame” across the park, dragging his destroyed awning, arms and all, to the dumpster.
Then Terry and Jo had a story about something that happened to them some 20 years ago that they still chuckle over. They had just left a campground in Estes Park, CO, and started driving down E. Elkhorn Ave, the main street going through Estes Park. They were taking off from one of the stop lights, when a man came running down the street after them, knocked on his wife’s window, only to say that the camper door was open. He had forgotten to bolt lock the door before they left!
Also in our Community, we regularly take polls. And since we are winding down the 2024 camping year, we asked folks to share with us their 2025 RV Goals.
46% of the respondents said their goal is to camp more in 2025.
31% said their goal is to do an epic, cross-country RV trip in 2025.
And there were many other inspirational goals shared like: Stop hurrying or rushing and just slow down and enjoy life, stay at locations longer and do more boondocking.
Then over in our RVLifestyle Facebook Group, this next post from Nicole drew an amazing response. Nicole and her hubby are weekend warriors, often arriving at their campsite after dark on a Friday night. She admitted this is not ideal. Backing the camper into their spot in the pitch black had become super stressful for her husband, so he came up with the idea of laying down “runway lights'.
When they arrive at their campsite they get out and inspect the site, then lay down a strip of battery operated Christmas lights on two sides to guide where the camper needs to be placed. Her husband then uses the lights to line up the tires and back in. They know he will not hit anything using the lights as a visual marker. She said it works like a charm and shared it in case it could help anyone else.
And boy, did this tip ever help a lot of people! We are talking nearly 2,000 comments, something like 10,000 shares and more than 4 million views – it was unbelievable.
The majority of the folks said things like Larry, who wrote: Ingenious! Or Sharon, who wrote: That is one of the best things I have seen in a long time!
Others pointed out that obviously it is not considerate of your neighbors to arrive after dark, and some parks do not allow it. But let's face it, sometimes things happen. And if you are camping right now, it is dark before dinner time in many places! So I thought I'd share this in case it could help any of you.
RV QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK
Question: I am now 84, and while I have driven our 37-foot Class A motorhome all across the country over the years, the thought of driving from our Eastern Pennsylvania Home to our snowbird winter destination near Tucson again in January has me wondering if there is a better way for my wife and me. Do you happen to know of anyone who transports RVs for people like me? – John
ANSWER: Call your local RV dealer and ask them for a contact. Most have drivers they use from time to time to do this.
Alternately, there are companies that specialize in this. I’ve seen ads from several. You might check with a company called called Shiply (https://www.shiply.com/us/), or another company called Coast to Coast Transportation (https://www.transportcoasttocoast.com/). They both advertise that they do RV transportation.
I would think, though, that the best price you’ll get would be from one of the drivers used by your local RV dealer. That way, you are directly dealing with the driver, rather than middlemen like at those big transportation companies.
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