Ministry of Environmental Protection of People : MEP & AQSIQ jointly release the Limits and Measurement Methods for Emissions from Light-duty Vehicles (CHINA 6)

MEP and AQSIQ jointly released the Limits and Measurement Methods for Emissions from Light-duty Vehicles (CHINA 6) (hereinafter referred to as the Methods) recently, announcing the sixth-stage emission requirements for the light-duty vehicles and the date on which it takes effect.

China has set increasingly tougher vehicle emission standards in recent years. The national Stage Ⅰ emission standard commenced enforcement in 2001, and over 15 years' development, the Stage Ⅳ emission standard is being enforced on a national scale except in key areas where Stage Ⅴ emission standard is in effect. As a result, the emission per vehicle has been cut over 90 percent, effectively advanced the technical upgrading of the automobile industry. The MEP and AQSIQ introduced the sixth-stage emission standard for light-duty vehicles, in order to further strengthen the prevention and control of vehicle pollution, cut vehicle exhausts at the source, and meet the requirement for 'introducing the national Stage Ⅵ emission standard and corresponding standards on oil products' specified by the Outline of the 13th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development.

The Methods is not the equivalence to one of the European emission standards, which is different from the emission standards of previous stages. Automobile industry was involved and the specialists and business circles were fully consulted in the drafting process. The drafting team launched intensive investigations and studies, gathered and analyzed the emission data of 8,600 types of vehicles that met the national Stage Ⅴ standard, looked into the mileages of 500,000 light-duty vehicles, and orchestrated the verification tests. The significance of the Methods can be demonstrated by the following facts. First, the way of drafting has changed from catching up with the European and U.S. standards to making ambitious innovations and for the first time ever developing one of the world's leading standards. This helps China's auto makers to compete in the international markets and advance the development of its automobile industry. Second, in the context of overcapacity facing China's automobile industry, the Methods may help eliminate inefficient production capacity and lead the industrial upgrading. Third, the Methods can meet the demand of key areas for introducing tougher vehicle emission standards in an effort to improve ambient air quality.

The Methods has made six technical breakthroughs as indicated below. First, it uses the global unified testing protocol for light-duty vehicles, sets more strict testing requirements, effectively narrows the gap between laboratory certified emission and real driving emission, and lays the groundwork for coordinating and controlling the oil consumptions and emissions. Second, it introduces the testing of real driving emission (RDE), and improves the emission control efficiency of vehicles in real driving, which helps with the regulation by authority and effectively prevents fraudulence in case of excessive real driving emissions. Third, it adopts the fuel neutral principle and no longer sets lenient emission standards for the nitrogen oxides from diesel-fueled vehicles and the particulate matters from gasoline-fueled vehicles. Fourth, it strengthens the control of VOCs emission, introduces the 48h VOCs evaporation test and the testing of VOCs emissions in refueling, and improves the control of VOCs evaporation by over 90 percent. Fifth, it improves the requirements for the OBD system, adds the specifications for the storage of the permanent fault code and the temper proofing measures, and substantially prevents the excessive emission of vehicles in driving. Sixth, it streamlines the rules and determination methods used by competent departments for the environmental consistency check and in-use conformity check, so as to enable the operations to be more feasible.

The Methods adopts a stepwise approach and specifies two sets of limits, that is, plan a and plan b that will be enforced in the year 2020 and 2023 respectively, in an effort to make sure the automobile industry has a long-enough preparatory period to modify and upgrade the vehicle types and dynamical systems and get vehicle type approval and commence production. In the meantime, the key areas which have set specific requirements for air environment management may phase in the national Stage Ⅵ emission standard in advance. We've already had the preliminary production conditions and oil product conditions for the implementation of this standard. Several light-duty vehicle producers have almost completed the development of the prototype of light-duty vehicles to comply with the national Stage Ⅵ emission standard. The AQSIQ and the Standardization Administration adopted in this process the national Stage Ⅵ standards for the car use gasoline and diesel.

In the next step, MEP will actively coordinate relevant departments to support the implementation of the Methods, work harder on the supervision and inspection of the environmental attainment of vehicles, advance the upgrading of car use oil products, and substantially improve the urban air quality.

(This English version is for your reference only.In case any discrepancy exists between the Chinese and English context, the Chinese version shall prevail.)