Beijing has some of the worst air pollution of any city in the world. In an effort to combat that problem, it has established a series of pollution regulations for the motor vehicles that use its streets. Currently, Stage V rules — based primarily on regulations promulgated by the European Union — are in force.
Credit: China Daily
But there are new Stage VI rules ready to go which seek to slash carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions by 50% below those already strict Stage V level. Particulates would also see a 40% reduction. The Stage VI regulations are based on the ULEV standard promulgated by the California Air Resources Board. How odd that China has more confidence in that standard than the US government. The tougher rules will go into effect this year, according to a tweet by Greg Kable.
Beijing City officials have confirmed they will implement Stage 6 emission regulations in 2019. The new regulations stipulate a dramatic 50% reduction in CO2 and NOx and a 40% reduction in fine particulate matter over existing Stage 5 regulations.#China#AirPollution #Beijing
— Greg Kable (@GregKable) February 13, 2019
According to Transport Policy,
“The Beijing 6 proposal represents a shift from following the European pathway to that of the US, which has adopted the world’s most stringent light duty vehicle emission standards to date. The Beijing 6 proposal aims to achieve Beijing’s local emission reduction goals (targeting a 30-50% reduction in local air pollutants from new light-duty vehicles by 2017), formulated in the Clean Air Action Plan. The new standard proposal includes aggressive or special driving cycles intended to cover a wider range of driving conditions that vehicles encounter during use.
“For new light duty vehicles, the Beijing 6 proposal adopts the ULEV 70 limits in California’s LEV III emission standards as maximum emission limits on a per-vehicle basis. Beijing also adopted the FTP-75 test cycle family including the urban, highway, and cold-temperature driving cycles, as well as the supplemental US06 and SC03 cycles.
“Beijing banned the sale and registration of light-duty diesel vehicles. So all requirements in the light-duty vehicle standard proposal apply to gasoline, gasoline hybrid, and gasoline dual fuel vehicles only. Emission limits under these test cycles are given in the following table.”
“The Beijing 6 proposal extends the durability requirement for emission control performance up to 200,000 km, compared to 160,000 under Beijing/China 5. After implementation, Beijing EPB will gather Bejing 6 vehicle durability data to support revising the set of recommended deterioration factors.”
When the new rules take effect, Beijing authorities plan to strictly monitor compliance. “And they mean it. Roadblocks all around the city. Probe up your exhaust,” warns Bertel Schmidt in a Twitter reply to Kable. Reason enough to buy an electric car, one would think!
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