2020 will see enforcement of China 6 Emissions Standard for Light-duty vehicles (LDV).
More stringent than China 5 by as much as 50%, the new China 6 emission standard for Light-duty Vehicles is also set to raise the requirements on the control of pollutants generated during the refuelling process and test requirements on hybrid and EVs.
Auto manufacturers are almost certain to be challenged by the research and development (R & D design and production costs involved in the China 6 standard, including regulations for engine and automotive post-processing components plants. Some automakers are likely to focus on new energy vehicles to avoid the cost of combustion engine R & D.
Vehicle owners will also feel the force of the new legislation, finding old vehicle models no longer meet the emission standards, while facing price increases for new vehicles.
While the Government's Ministry of Environmental Protection has set 1 July 2020 as the foll-out for the new standard, the city of Shenzhen has said that China 6 for petrol vehicles will be officially implemented from 1 January 2019, despite the China 5 standards only coming into effect at the beginning of 2018.
Commenting to Lube Report, Robin Wong, Marketing Manager in China for Lubrizol, claimed the new standard "...is stricter than Euro 6 and will be implemented in two phases, China 6a in 2020 and China 6b in 2023.”
David Fang, vice-director of the new energy vehicle section of China Automotive Technology and Research Centre added: "We are in the process of designing a subsidy policy system after 2021 for innovative development of electric vehicles."