Mass haze has become a big problem from cities to the countryside in north China since early 2013. Yan Ping, an NPC deputy and chairman of Yuchai Group, ascribed the root of the haze to the ever-growing market inventory of vehicles and their emissions. He made a proposal that efforts should be made to effectively control and reduce motor vehicle emissions on the basis of taking national conditions into account, and that emission control should primarily target commercial vehicles, especially 3.5t+ medium and heavy-duty commercial vehicles.

Yan Ping (2nd R) conducts a plant survey

"Effectively controlling and reducing motor vehicle emission not only has a profound impact on China's auto industry and concerns the health of all Chinese people at present and in the future, but also is a great issue closely related to China's national image and influence," Yan said, taking out a set of data showing the emission apportionment proportions of 3.5t+ commercial motor vehicles. Take nitric oxide for example, the apportionment proportions of heavy-duty trucks, medium trucks, buses and mini buses are 34.6 percent, 15.8 percent, 25.4 percent and 5.1 percent respectively, totaling 80.9 percent, the proportions will be higher in terms of particulate emission.

Yan noted, though the number of commercial vehicles is only one third of that of passenger vehicles, the emission and travelled distance of a single commercial vehicle are much higher than that of a single passenger vehicle, registering a high proportion of emission. Thus, formulating regulations and policies specific to commercial vehicle discharges should be placed high on the agenda of motor vehicle discharge control.

In recent years, China's vehicle emission standards have been upgraded constantly, National IV and V emission standards are scheduled to come into effect in July 2013 and 2015 respectively. According to statistics, for pre-National I vehicles accounting for 9.5 percent of the market inventory of vehicles, the four principal pollutants emitted by these vehicles account for over 40 percent of total emissions; for National III+ vehicles accounting for 53.7 percent of the market inventory of vehicles, the four principal pollutants emitted by these vehicles account for less than 25 percent of total emissions.

Vehicle emission standard upgrading has been the most effective means of controlling and reducing vehicle emissions over the past decade, and every upgrading of vehicle emission standards and tightening of emission regulations have produced significant effects of emission reduction. However, there is a notable phenomenon: Beijing has always been an area that upgraded emission standards earlier, but the frequent haze early this year reminds us that vehicle emission control is a national and global problem, and local control and emission reduction are unlikely to produce good effects. For this reason, emission control and upgrading targeting the whole country and industry should be the basis of China's working out measures and formulating policies. Particularly, commercial vehicles should be taken as the emphasis of emission control and optimization.

However, to be up to National IV standards, commercial vehicle emissions involve the upgrading of technologies and products in the diesel engine industry and related industries. The diesel engine parts industry has the greatest impact on electronically controlled diesel injection system industry and the diesel engine after-treatment device industry. China is immature and far behind Europe and America in the two industries, and primarily relies on imported and joint-venture products and technologies to meet the requirements of National IV standards, producing high costs.

The National IV regulations for commercial vehicles will come into effect on July 1, 2013. From National III regulations to National IV regulations, according to estimate, the cost of a medium-duty vehicle and a heavy-duty vehicle will increase by 20,000 to 30,000 yuan and 30,000 yuan to 40,000 yuan, showing cost increases with vehicle weight.

Yan worried that the comprehensive implementation of National IV standards will confront both engine plants and vehicle plants with heavy cost pressure. On the other hand, if users bear all increased cost, they will shift the increase by raising freight, thus affecting all aspects of economic activities and driving up price levels.

How to effectively address the country's environmental problem and ease enterprises' cost pressure? Yan Ping suggested that the nation must release the terminal purchase subsidy policy to drive the emission upgrading of medium & heavy-duty commercial vehicles, thus promoting the commercialization and industrialization of the electronically controlled diesel injection industry and the after-treatment emission industry, shortening the process of maturation of relevant industries, narrowing the gap between China and foreign countries, and sharpening the competitiveness of independent commercial vehicle brands.

According to estimate, the annual sales volume of medium trucks and heavy-duty trucks in the coming five years will be less than 300,000 units and less than 700,000 units respectively, Yan said. The national financial fund involved in the three years will roughly be 26 billion yuan, 21 billion yuan and 16 billion yuan respectively, which is affordable to the nation. In view of the heavy costs of environmental improvement, severe weather improvement and reduction of efforts in environmental treatment in the future, the investment is worthy. To put it simply, if the particulate emission of 600,000 tons and the nitric oxide emission of 6 million tons from motor vehicles in 2011 are taken as the benchmark, after National IV standards come into effect, the annual particulate emission will reduce by some 13 percent or 8,000 tons and the annual nitric oxide mission will reduce by some 5 percent or 270,000 tons.

(Source: Pang Geping/Li Chunmei, Peoples Daily Overseas Edition)