As the nation’s major truckmakers seek to abandon California’s stricter-than-federal emissions rules, experts are weighing whether this U-turn could allow new players to disrupt the market.

“All your competitors just announced their strategy,” Craig Segall, former deputy executive officer and assistant chief counsel of the California Air Resources Board (CARB), told The Hill.

“How quickly can you ramp up to eat their lunch?” Segall asked.

This now unmasked strategy — an about-face on compliance with the Golden State’s heavy-duty vehicle standards — came to light this week when four manufacturers sued California regulators over the matter.

Soon after, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) declared that a voluntary "Clean Truck Partnership" between the companies and the state was “unenforceable.”

Then, Friday, the Department of Justice sued California about the same partnership, in a bid to “advance President Donald J. Trump’s commitment to end the electric vehicle (EV) mandate.”

The week’s initial lawsuit, filed Monday by Daimler Truck, International Motors, PACCAR and the Volvo Group, alleged the federal government had deemed California’s emissions rules “unlawful” in June.

At the time, President Trump signed off on three congressional resolutions revoking a Biden administration waiver that had

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