Strict Fuel Economy Standards Placed On Chinese Auto Industry

March 22nd, 2013 by James Ayre

Long-awaited fuel economy standards have finally been imposed on the Chinese auto industry. The standards are being implemented as part of a larger attempt to cut down on the dangerous levels of air pollution in the country.

Image Credit: Air Pollution via Shutterstock

Air pollution is a significant problem in many parts of China, causing over $100 billion in damage to human health every year, via illness and death. As a result, some aggressive policies have been adopted in recent years, including the recent announcement of a £13,000 subsidy for electric vehicles. And now, strict fuel economy standards have been adopted as well.

The new rules, jointly issued by five different government bodies, will force passenger cars to lower their average fuel consumption “to 6.9 liters per 100 kilometers by 2015 and down further to 5.0 liters by 2020,” as Reuters notes.

“That’s going to be tough for everyone, especially those small players as they will have to use more fuel-efficient engines and invest in hybrid technologies,” said Yale Zhang, head of Shanghai-based industry consultancy Automotive Foresight.

As of 2009, the average passenger car in China uses about 7.8 liters per 100 kilometers.

“Chinese Premier Li Keqiang pledged on Sunday that his government would show even greater resolve in tackling China’s pollution crisis.”

While this is a good start, along with the aforementioned EV subsidies, air pollution will likely remain a significant problem in the country into the near future unless more aggressive actions are taken. It’ll be interesting to see what the government’s next moves will be.

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Tags: air pollution China automobiles, air quality China reform, China, china air pollution, China air quality, China auto industry reform, fuel economy standards cars Chinese auto industry, Fuel economy standards China, Fuel-Efficient Cars

About the Author

James Ayre 's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy. You can follow his work on Google+.

jonesey jonesey

“Long-awaited”? “Finally”? China has had better fuel economy standards than the US for many years.

Here’s a familiar person showing a graph in a screen shot from a film that we’ve all seen.

http://web.ncf.ca/jim/ref/inconvenientTruth/full/01_21_22.jpg

The US 2012 CAFE standard set a goal of 54 MPG by 2025. We might just catch up to China.
- Ronald Brakels
  
  Personally I’ve been jonesing for improved Chinese efficiency standards for a long time. Where China goes, others will follow. EU standards have helped improve fuel efficiency in my country and China’s improved standards will do the same.
JustSaying

Now they need to move to low sulfur diesel like Europe/US/elsewhere.
anderlan

7.8L/100km = 30MPG (current average)
6.9L/100km = 34MPG (2015 goal)
5L/100km = 47MPG (2020 goal)