Industry support for adopting new Euro VI standards is being sought, with the Federal Government saying a failure to follow Europe’s lead risks turning Australia into a “dumping ground” for old technology.
The Department of Infrastructure and Transport has released a
discussion paper laying out the costs and benefits of moving from
Euro V standards for trucks to Euro VI from January 1, 2016.
The paper says adopting the new standards, which will begin in
Europe on December 31 this year, will reduce the amount of nitrous
oxide emissions new trucks can emit by up to 80 percent and by up
to 66 percent for particulates compared to Euro V.
It says adopting Euro VI will allow Australia to take advantage of
cleaner engine technologies.
“Not adopting these standards, when other countries have
implemented such standards, would be inconsistent with Australia’s
commitment to harmonise vehicle standards with international
standards and may also limit the ability of local truck and bus
distributors and component suppliers to access more advanced
technologies,” the paper says.
“It may also increase the risk of Australia becoming a ‘dumping
ground’ for older technology.”
The paper wants feedback from the trucking industry on
whether it supports adopting Euro VI standards and, if so, what the
timeframe for introducing them should be.
It also wants the industry to provide its thoughts on allowing
equivalent standards in place in the United States and Japan to be
accepted as alternatives.
The Department of Infrastructure and Transport, which is giving the
industry until January 31, 2013 to respond, says introducing new
standards is likely to increase the cost of new trucks in the short
term. However, it says operators should be able to pass the costs
on to their customers.
It goes on to say servicing and maintenance costs will rise if Euro
VI standards are adopted, but prices should decrease over time as
the technology becomes more common.
The Federal Government proposes implementing the new standards on
January 1, 2016 for new vehicles and on January 1, 2017 for
existing models.
“The timeframe would allow manufacturers sufficient time to comply
with the new standards without significant disruption to their
product plans,” the discussion paper says.
“Such a commencement date would be three years after the start date
in Europe and six years after the start date for ADR 80/03 [Euro
V].”
The paper says heavy vehicles account for 31 percent of nitrous
oxide emissions and 47 percent of particulate emissions despite
only making up about 4 percent of all motor vehicles in
Australia.
However, new Euro standards are unlikely to be enough to offset the
heavy vehicle sector’s contribution to air pollution levels.
“Despite improvements achieved through current vehicle standards,
air pollutants from heavy vehicles are expected to continue to
cause concern due to growth in vehicle kilometres as a result of
increased demand for transport,” the government department
says.
“Over the longer term, it is anticipated that emission levels will
start to rise, as increases in annual vehicle activity will start
to offset the reductions achieved by current vehicle standards when
the emission control measures required to meet these standards are
incorporated into the entire fleet.”
It says heavy vehicle kilometres will grow at a faster rate than
the kilometres of light vehicles between 2010 and 2030 (57 percent
to 44 percent), despite light vehicles accounting for most of
vehicle activity.
“Within the heavy vehicle fleet, articulated trucks (2.49% per
annum) are expected to experience the greatest level of growth in
activity, despite expected improvements in energy intensity (0.8%
per annum for trucks),” the paper says.