China Energy Outlook 2020 - Flipbook - Page 94
Fuel Economy Standards
China continues to have an active fuel economy standards program, covering light-duty
passenger vehicles as well as heavy-duty and light-duty commercial vehicles.
China’s current mandatory fuel economy standard for light-duty passenger vehicles was last
revised in 2014 and is in effect through 2020 (MIIT, 2014). The Phase IV standard that became
effective in January 2016 set a fleet average target of 5.0 liters per 100 kilometers (L/100 km,
about 48 miles per gallon) for new passenger cars sold in 2020, or 27.5% reduction from the
2015 target of 6.9 L/100 km. Figure 2-3 compares China’s historical fuel economy performance
and current standard requirements with other existing international fuel economy trends and
standards, normalized to the U.S. corporate average fuel economy test cycle, and shows that
China has moved from lagging to leading in terms of global fuel economy comparisons but still
is behind both the EU and South Korea.
During the 13th FYP period, China also revised its fuel consumption limits for heavy-duty
commercial vehicles (effective on July 1, 2019) and for light-duty commercial vehicles (effective
on January 1, 2018) (MIIT, 2015b; MIIT, 2018c). Although heavy-duty vehicles constitute only
10% of China’s new vehicle market, they account for around 50% of road fuel consumption and
fuel economy averages 44L/100 km compared to 39L/100km in the US and 36-38L/100km in
the EU (ICCT, 2016).
Figure 2-3. International Comparison of Historical Passenger Car Fleet Performance and Current
Standards
Source: Yang and Bandivadekar, 2017.
Note: mpg normalized to U.S. CAFE test cycles
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