Final answer:
The Vehicle Management and Equipment Management Support Office reports to manufacturers when test results indicate non-compliance with standards, such as the EPA fuel economy and emissions policy. The office relies on EPA testing and data, as well as manufacturer submissions to assess compliance, especially against established fuel economy standards. Statistical analyses, such as hypothesis testing, are utilized for these assessments.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Vehicle Management and Equipment Management Support Office may send a formal report to the manufacturer after receiving and verifying test results from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It is the EPA that conducts fuel economy tests on a small percentage of vehicles and accepts manufacturer-submitted results for the remainder. If discrepancies or issues are found during the testing process, or if a manufacturer's fleet does not meet required standards, such as the national fuel economy and emissions policy, a report could be sent to the manufacturer.
Regarding the specific case of determining compliance with the 2016 policy requiring an average of 35.5 miles per gallon (mpg), the manufacturer would use the sample mean and standard deviation from the selected vehicles to perform a statistical hypothesis test. If the calculated test statistic does not fall into the critical region defined by the 5 percent significance level, the manufacturer could not claim that their fleet meets the standard.
Fuel economy standards are crucial in this process, as they dictate the efficiency levels manufacturers must achieve. These standards, and compliance with them, are assessed using statistical analyses like hypothesis testing, which considers factors such as sample mean and standard deviation.