The trucking industry faces challenges in reducing pollution and carbon emissions—nitrogen oxides require stricter regulation.

On May 12, 2022, the Center for Clean Air in Asia, the School of Environment at Tsinghua University, and the National Big Data Alliance for New Energy Vehicles jointly released the "2020 Green Card List: China's Truck and Manufacturer Green Rankings" report. The report shows that during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, China's truck environmental management system continued to improve, regulatory measures achieved significant results, and pollutant emissions from in-use diesel trucks decreased significantly. Pure electric trucks were effectively promoted in some regions, laying the foundation for electric trucks to continue to play a role in green freight transportation.

The report points out that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the freight industry still faces numerous challenges in reducing pollution and carbon emissions. It recommends promptly refining the top-level design of the 14th Five-Year Plan, clarifying the coordinated goals and paths for reducing pollution and carbon emissions in the freight industry, and achieving green development in the freight industry through measures such as strengthening nitrogen oxide regulations for diesel and natural gas trucks and breaking through bottlenecks in the use of electric trucks. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the "Diesel Truck Pollution Control Action Plan," a key component of the "Three-Year Action Plan to Win the Battle for Blue Skies," outlines a full lifecycle clean diesel vehicle initiative, from new vehicles to in-use vehicles, to promote sustained vehicle emissions reductions. The report, focusing on diesel, pure electric, and natural gas trucks in the Chinese market, primarily uses emissions and energy consumption data from official and publicly available sources. Incorporating data from on-board diagnostics (OBD) remote online monitoring, vehicle tracking, and vehicle-wide PEMS testing, it analyzes the progress of environmental policy implementation, technological development, and market promotion during the 13th Five-Year Plan period. The report shows that the annual environmental inspection pass rate for in-use diesel trucks in China steadily increased between 2018 and 2020. In 2020, the annual inspection pass rate for in-use diesel trucks meeting the National V standard was 96.6%, an increase of approximately two percentage points from 2019. Furthermore, nitrogen oxide and particulate matter emissions from in-use diesel trucks have also significantly improved. Cheng Huihui, Director of the Transportation Program at the Center for Clean Air in Asia, noted that the implementation of the National VI standard is also a key means of "source control" for diesel vehicle emissions during the 13th Five-Year Plan period. In just one year since its implementation, the emissions advantages of in-use vehicles meeting the National VI standard have become apparent. In the 2020 annual vehicle environmental inspection, smoke levels and nitrogen oxide levels for National VI diesel vehicles decreased by 25.4% and 61.4%, respectively, compared to National V emissions.

The report shows that the electric truck market, a key measure for pollution and carbon reduction in the transportation industry, has continued to grow during the 13th Five-Year Plan period. On the one hand, new and established automakers have entered the market, intensifying market competition and steadily increasing concentration. On the other hand, cities such as Shenzhen, Beijing, and Chengdu have implemented measures such as opening up road rights, effectively promoting the promotion of electric trucks in their respective regions and laying the foundation for their continued role in pollution and carbon reduction efforts in the freight industry in the next phase. Wu Ye, a professor at the School of Environment at Tsinghua University, stated that controlling nitrogen oxide emissions is both a difficult and key issue in reducing pollution for both diesel and natural gas trucks. The "China Mobile Source Environmental Management Annual Report (2021)" shows that in 2020, nitrogen oxide emissions from diesel trucks accounted for 78.5% of total vehicle emissions.
Cheng Huihui pointed out that there's still room for tightening regulations on nitrogen oxides from diesel trucks. The current diesel vehicle emission standard (GB 3847-2018) used in annual vehicle environmental inspections sets a nitrogen oxide limit of 1500 ppm, which is too loose. Over 99% of National V and National VI vehicles easily pass this limit, rendering the standard ineffective in screening out vehicles with high nitrogen oxide emissions. Cheng Huihui also recommended that national and local environmental protection departments promptly adjust the nitrogen oxide limit for annual inspections and implement the stricter limit of 900 ppm as soon as possible. The report also analyzed the actual road emissions performance of natural gas trucks, which are currently experiencing a rise in market share. The report found that natural gas heavy-duty trucks pose a risk of high nitrogen oxide emissions in actual use. Vehicle-to-vehicle testing showed that National V natural gas heavy-duty trucks emit 3.3 times more nitrogen oxide than National V diesel heavy-duty trucks. "Regulation of nitrogen oxides for natural gas heavy-duty trucks has yet to be completed," said Cheng Huihui. "For one thing, the current testing methods commonly used in annual inspections for natural gas heavy-duty trucks cannot detect nitrogen oxides. Furthermore, current regulations do not mandate the installation of nitrogen oxide sensors and data upload on-board OBD remote emission management terminals for National VI natural gas vehicles, leaving a lack of real-time monitoring capabilities."

The 2021 "Opinions on Deepening the Battle Against Pollution" lists the battle to protect blue skies and the fight against diesel truck pollution as key priorities. The report recommends that the goals of the diesel truck pollution control campaign during the 14th Five-Year Plan period should include nitrogen oxides, in addition to particulate matter reduction targets, and incorporate actual road emissions data. For natural gas trucks, special action plans should be implemented to address these issues, strengthen regulatory measures for natural gas nitrogen oxides, and increase specialized inspections of natural gas truck aftertreatment systems. "Synergizing pollution reduction and carbon reduction to enhance efficiency" has become a core environmental protection theme across all industries during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. However, the report points out that the top-level design for coordinating these two tasks remains unclear.

Wu Ye stated that different energy options and combinations of technical measures will lead to different governance outcomes. For example, with the National VI natural gas trucks, nitrogen oxide emissions can be kept to a low level when the three-way catalytic converter is operating normally. However, from a lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) perspective, natural gas's advantages are less pronounced. This is partly due to the lower combustion efficiency of some gas engines compared to diesel vehicles, and partly due to methane leakage during transportation and in the exhaust of natural gas trucks.

The report recommends that relevant departments, including the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the Ministry of Transport, quickly clarify the goals and paths for pollution reduction and carbon reduction in the truck industry during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, further improve emission and energy consumption management systems, and establish CO2 emission standards for motor vehicles to guide the truck and freight industries in accelerating their transition to low emissions and low carbon emissions. Furthermore, the report points out that promoting electrification is a key measure for reducing pollution and carbon emissions in the truck industry. However, during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the new energy truck market started strong but ended poorly, and overall progress in truck electrification was relatively slow. In 2020, the sales penetration rate of electric trucks was only 0.78%, and their usage rate was lower than that of other transportation service models such as pure electric buses and taxis. Li Yang, Executive Secretary-General of the National Big Data Alliance for New Energy Vehicles, stated that within the context of the "dual carbon" goals, electric trucks, as one of the pathways to reducing pollution and carbon emissions, will continue to expand steadily, with rapid market penetration and increased market acceptance.

Cheng Huihui stated, "The next phase should be based on in-depth research and analysis, coordinated planning and design, and strengthened supporting facilities to enhance driver confidence in choosing electric trucks, which will help increase the level of truck electrification and usage."

Wu Ye emphasized that fuel cycle energy consumption determines whether replacing traditional fuel trucks with electric trucks is the optimal strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. While promoting truck electrification, we should also promote the green transformation of regional energy structures to reduce carbon emissions throughout the life cycle of electric trucks.

Reprinted from Sina Auto

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