China's motor vehicles, especially heavy goods vehicles, will usher in stricter emission supervision.

 

"Mobile sources have been the primary source of pollutant emissions", "to study and formulate National Seventh standards for light vehicles and heavy vehicles", "to promote heavy goods vehicles to retire four, treat five, regulate six and promote new"...... Li Tianwei, director of the atmospheric environment Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, revealed a lot of latest information about air pollution prevention and control at a regular press conference held on February 24.

 

01 "important source" to "primary source" mobile source emission reduction into a new breakthrough in air pollution control

 

It is worth noting that the Ministry of Ecology and Environment previously used more "main source" and "important source" to describe the "contribution" of mobile sources in pollutant emissions, and the expression "primary source" was rare. Behind this, since the "14th Five-Year Plan", the situation of air pollution prevention and control in China has undergone profound changes, and the impact of mobile sources has become increasingly prominent.

 

"At present and in the coming period, it is urgent and necessary to grasp the bull nose of mobile sources." Li Tianwei analyzed that from the total emission point of view, mobile source is an important source of air pollutant emissions in China, the emission of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds accounted for about 60% and 24% of the national total respectively. In densely populated cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Jinan, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chengdu, mobile sources are already the leading sources of pollutants.

 

On the other hand, according to the "Opinions on Deepening the Battle against Pollution Prevention and Control" issued by the Party Central Committee and The State Council in November 2021, heavy pollution weather should be basically eliminated in 2025, and the ratio of heavy pollution days should be controlled within 1%. This year marks the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan. Can the goal of basically eliminating heavy pollution weather be successfully achieved? Li Tianwei believes that because of the unfavorable objective conditions such as meteorological conditions and climate forms, there are still considerable difficulties and challenges in achieving the goal.

 

Because of this, at the 2025 National Ecological Environment Protection Work Conference on January 14, Huang Runqiu, Minister of Ecology and Environment, stressed that it is necessary to strengthen the control of air pollution in key regions and key areas, take the emission reduction of mobile sources as a new breakthrough, and focus on promoting the significant improvement of air quality in cities at the prefecture level and above.

 

The formulation of national emission standards was accelerated

 

"From the perspective of international practice, the United States and the European Union have taken the emission reduction of mobile sources as a key area of air pollution control." Li Tianwei said that the coordination of pollution reduction and carbon reduction has become the consensus of countries in the management of mobile source emissions. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment should focus on four aspects of work next, and standards play a basic and leading role in emission reduction, so the first is to "accelerate the development and revision of mobile source standards."

 

This means that the formulation of national 7 emission standards will be accelerated. According to reports, the next step, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will standard Europe and the United States advanced regulations, research and development of light vehicles, heavy vehicles of the national seven standards, the national seven standard emission control technology level is basically in line with Europe and the United States, about two years later implementation, to achieve vehicle pollution reduction carbon reduction coordination. At the same time, research and development of non-road mobile machinery national five standards to achieve emission control technology and the world's advanced level. Improve the standard and specification system for in-use vehicles, and improve the verification methods of emission inspection equipment and anti-cheating technical provisions.

 

"This is an inevitable trend of historical development." In an interview with China Automotive News, Yao Chunde, a professor at Tianjin University, said that the transportation industry is the key area of China's pollution reduction and carbon reduction and synergistic efficiency. Entering the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, China has issued a number of policies such as the "Implementation Plan for Reducing pollution and carbon synergies", the "14th Five-Year Plan for Green Transportation", and the "Action Plan for the Battle against diesel Truck Pollution Control", which has pressed the accelerator key for the transportation industry to move towards zero carbon emissions. Among them, the road transport with diesel trucks as the carrier occupies the leading position of China's freight transport, and is the main position of reducing pollution and carbon in the transportation industry. The formulation of the seventh National emission standards is to further reduce greenhouse gases, energy conservation and emission reduction, and play a certain role in promoting the control of air pollution.

 

He Hong, deputy director of the Research Center for Ecological Environment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, previously said that the improvement of vehicle emission standards has played a certain role in pollution control, and every time the standards are raised, vehicle exhaust pollution has dropped significantly. In his view, in order to further make China's motor vehicle emission control can remain at the international advanced level, accelerate the construction of transportation power, motor vehicle national seven emission standards is imperative.

 

However, for the automobile industry, Yao Chunde pointed out that the National seventh emission standard not only upgrades the pollutant detection items and limits of exhaust emissions, but also puts forward the brake system and tire particulate emission detection requirements, which brings great challenges. According to Lu Xindi, chief skill master of the Dachai Plant of FAW Jiefang Powertrain Division, the key issues to be solved by the National Seventh emission standard include: Cooperative emission reduction of volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides, actual road emissions, reflecting the importance of cold start emissions, unconventional pollutants and alternative fuels, on-board automatic diagnostic system and on-board monitoring system technology, enhanced control of particulate matter, including tire and brake pad wear, and collaborative control of greenhouse gas emissions. These were hardly considered in previous emissions standards.

 

He Hong suggested that in addition to the administrative departments, how to formulate the national seventh emission standards, we should fully listen to the industrial chain, especially the suggestions of upstream and downstream related enterprises, and also absorb the forces of research units, associations and other parties for in-depth exchanges and discussions. Through multi-party cooperation, in-depth overall analysis of the feasibility of policies, routes, technologies, and economies is carried out to ensure the rationality, accuracy, and implemensibility of the formulation of "National Seven" standards. At the same time, it should reflect Chinese characteristics and be more in line with the needs of Chinese application scenarios.

 

03 Strengthen supervision to promote the industry to new green

 

The second of the four priorities of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment is to strengthen the supervision of motor vehicle emissions. Li Tianwei highlighted the promotion of heavy goods vehicles "four, five, six, push new." He explained this new strategy: back four is to speed up the elimination of trucks in the country four and below, the rule five is to strictly regulate the problem of the country's five trucks exceeding the standard, the management of six is to strengthen the intelligent supervision of the country's six trucks, and the push new is to speed up the alternative application of new energy heavy trucks. At the same time, continue to carry out special rectification of third-party institutions in the field of motor vehicle emission inspection, "engage in consecutive years, resolutely curb the occurrence of such acts of fraud."

 

The third is to promote the comprehensive treatment of non-road mobile machinery, including focusing on increasing the proportion of new energy machinery and internal vehicles such as airports, ports and parks. The fourth is to continue to promote the clean transportation of bulk goods, promote the clean transportation of bulk goods in key industries such as thermal power, steel, coal, coking, nonferrous metals, and cement, and promote the long-distance transportation of bulk goods to transit iron and water.

 

Overall, the upgrading of emission standards and the tightening of supervision will promote the transformation and upgrading of the entire industry and technological innovation, and the development of new energy commercial vehicles, especially new energy heavy trucks, will be further accelerated.

 

"In the past, our standards were only for the emission intensity control of bicycles, and now we need to consider the bicycles and the total amount, including the total amount of pollutants and carbon emissions of production enterprises." This is similar to the US Environmental Protection Agency's "CAFE policy" (US fuel consumption and emission rating standards), while setting corresponding restrictions on other non-carbon dioxide greenhouse gases, such as nitrous oxide, HFC of vehicle air conditioning, etc., forcing traditional fuel vehicle manufacturers to balance their entire product line, adding the weight of zero-emission vehicles to it. To achieve sustained reductions in total." Ding Yan, chief scientist at the Chinese Academy of Environmental Sciences.

 

Yao Chunde analysis, the improvement of emission standards will further exacerbate the contraction of the fuel vehicle market, while the market share of new energy vehicles will gradually expand. "The pollutant emission limits of national seven standards are more stringent than those of national six, and if the technical level of diesel engines or reprocessing is improved separately, it will be difficult to meet the emission requirements of the next stage." Many car companies will turn their attention to new energy models." In the interview, many industry insiders also pointed out that, limited by the pressure of the national seven emission standards, some relevant enterprises will transition to new energy closer, accelerate the research and development and layout of new energy, while stricter emission supervision will also bring greater development opportunities for new energy vehicles in the market.

 

"Facing the future of stricter regulations and standards and the inevitable trend of energy transformation, 'green' has become a necessary factor for car companies to enhance the competitiveness of brands and products." Cheng Huihui, director of the Asia Clean Air Center's Transportation program, said during the China Blue Sky Watch Forum held earlier.

 

Originally published by China Automotive News, February 26, 2025