Global Times - Beijing will implement a harsher automobile-emission standard starting from Feb. 1 in a move to reduce the city's auto pollution by 40 percent, the municipal environmental authorities said Wednesday.
The new Beijing V emission standard could be as strict as the Euro V emission standard implemented in Europe, said Fang Li, spokesman for the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau.
Fang said, Beijing is the country's first city to introduce the fifth phase of emission standard for automobiles.
The standard, the strictest nationwide, will be applied to new cars on the auto market and motor vehicles that have yet to receive license plates, Fang said, adding that vehicles currently in use will not be influenced by the new regulation.
As of Feb. 1, the sale and registration of diesel vehicles that cannot meet the new standard will be halted. Sales of substandard gasoline cars are to be stopped as of March 1, Fang said.
More than 1,300 vehicle models have met the new standard and can meet the demands of buyers with different financial requirements, according to Fang.
A greater variety of vehicles will hit the market to meet the increasing demand, Li Kunsheng, director of the bureau's vehicle management department, added.
Beijing has a permanent population of around 20 million and some 5.2 million vehicles, with the number of private cars still on the rise.
It is expected that the number of vehicles in the city will reach 6 million by 2015, Li said.
According to the bureau, automobiles account for around 58 percent of total emissions of nitrogen monoxide in the city, and around 40 percent of the total volatile organic compounds.
In addition, cars also account for 22.2 percent of the city's total PM2.5 emissions.
Once the new standard goes into effect, it will help the capital cut nitrogen oxide emissions from vehicles by about 40 percent, Li said.
Beijing has seen frequent dense smog this month. Air quality hit serious levels on Wednesday, with smog blanketing the city.
The implementation of the new standard is expected to reduce automobile emissions, particularly fine particles that are known to be more hazardous, Fang said.
In addition, the bureau will also speed up the pace of scrapping old polluting vehicles.
The bureau has come up with an initiative to rid the city of its aging and polluting vehicles by providing benefits to local motorists.
The city got rid of 370,000 aging vehicles in 2012, and aims to get rid of another 180,000 in 2013, according to Fang.
The drive has turned effective in weeding out heavily polluting vehicles, and the bureau said it will continue to introduce more benefits to encourage aging vehicles off the road.
