Passenger vehicle greenhouse gas emissions and fuel consumption

Eleven countries worldwide have established or proposed fuel efficiency or greenhouse-gas emission standards for passenger vehicles and light commercial vehicles and trucks. The regulations in these markets, covering more than 80 percent of global passenger vehicle sales, influence the business decisions of major vehicle manufacturers around the world, and are among the most effective climate-change mitigation measures to have been implemented over the past decade.

These governments have taken differing approaches to designing their regulations, using different drive cycles and vehicle certification test procedures. Converting the standard values—that is, the fuel efficiency mandates or emissions limits—between different regulations involves not just converting physical units but also accounting for the impacts of differences in test cycles.

Since 2007, the ICCT has maintained a set of data tables, comparison charts, and a conversion tool as a ready reference to worldwide passenger vehicle fuel efficiency standards, with the aim of comparing the relative stringency of regulations as accurately and fairly as possible. The increasingly urgent need for effective policies on climate change mitigation and energy efficiency has only underscored the importance of accessible, reliable, and fair benchmarking across jurisdictions.

In 2014 we comprehensively updated the methodology underlying those resources. See the summary overview of those updates, and a detailed description of the methodology to learn more. The results are reflected in our library of comparison charts, and in the modified Excel-based conversion tool (links below). In 2017 we released a comprehensive report that updates the fuel efficiency policy of major vehicle markets. Future policy changes will be noted on our factsheets for each market (see below).