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The new California LEV-II regulations for “near zero” evaporative emissions require a 75% reduction from current emission levels for light duty vehicles. To meet the challenge of satisfying these new regulations, there is an immediate need for an increased understanding of the sources of evaporative emissions. Hydrocarbon speciation by gas chromatography is a powerful analytical tool for determining the composition of complex hydrocarbon mixtures. Gas chromatography and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry were used to identify the volatile organic compounds (VOC) present in the evaporative emissions from a number of prototype and recent production model gasoline-fueled vehicles. For a “typical” evaporative emissions sample, more than 90% of the emissions were found to be fuel-type hydrocarbons.