Proposed China national fuel consumption standards for new commercial HDVs

On September 24, 2012, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) put forward a proposal for a National Fuel Consumption Standard for new commercial heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs). The proposed standard stipulates a set of limits on the fuel consumption for new commercial trucks, dump trucks, tractors, coaches and buses with gross vehicle weight over 3,500 kg. The new standard would take effect beginning July 1, 2014.

Compared to the current fuel consumption standards for new heavy-duty vehicles (the Industry Fuel Consumption Standard) that took effect on July 1, 2012, the proposed National Standards cover more vehicle types (including dump trucks and city buses which were not included in the Industry Standard). It also tightens the fuel consumption limits for tractors, trucks and coach by an average of 10.5% to 14.5%, compared to the limits under the Industry Standard.

Key elements of the proposed regulation

• The five regulated vehicle categories—tractors, straight trucks, dump trucks, city buses and coaches–account for over 90% of new HDV sales. Specialized vocational vehicles (like cement trucks), which contribute to about 8% of new HDV sales, are exempted from the proposed regulation.
• Uses liter per 100km as the evaluation metric, consistent with the Industry Standard.
• Similar to the Industry Standard, the National Standard sets fuel consumption limits following a step function, using gross vehicle weight as the utility parameter.
• Specifies a less stringent fuel consumption limits for gasoline straight trucks and coaches: gasoline models are subject to 20% higher fuel consumption limits than diesel models.
• The proposed National Standard is to be implemented for new HDV models applying for type approval starting from July 1, 2014; by July 1, 2015, all new commercial HDVs sold in China (except for specialized vocational vehicles) are required to comply with the National Standard.

Expected outcome

About half of the models tested by the regulatory agency to-date cannot meet the proposed fuel consumption limits; under this regulation, and the new fleet average HDV fuel consumption is expected to drop by about 11% by 2015, resulting in 5 – 6 million tons of annual oil saving.

Next steps

The proposed National Standard has been approved by the National Technical Committee of Auto Standardization. A final standard will be submitted to the Standardization Administration of China (SAC) for discussion and adoption in the next few months. An enforcement plan is expected to be developed by MIIT in 2013.

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