I doubt this has diddly-squat to do with where production bikes are in the pipeline as testing is done on prototypes and probably occurred months ago. And I doubt it would have anything to do with whether bikes can come into the country. The importer needs this paperwork to legally sell and license the motorcycles, not ship them.
And the EPA and CARB don't certify actual parts that go into production motorcycles. Yamaha can switch parts suppliers (i.e., ECU mfgs) as long as they certify that the production parts meet the same specs as the prototype that passed the tests. I think there is also a process where the mfg can make limited changes and provide documentation that the changes would not increase emissions based on engineering analysis. This allows some latitude to make minor changes without having to redo all the tests from scratch.
Basically, this certification has to do with approving the design and emissions control system of the motorcycle, not the actual bikes being shipped.
It does maybe mean that Yamaha wouldn't have been able to sell S10's in CA back in May even if they had arrived then. But they may have deliberately slowed down the process when it became clear that production was being postponed.
Final Note: This is CARB certification for CA, not 49-state EPA certification. There is a separate process for EPA. The CARB tests are pretty limited - I think they just check for evap emissions (for the bike just sitting) and a couple of other things that the EPA doesn't. As I recall, I think we did get information a while back that indicated there would be separate 49-state and CA models.
- Mark