On October 9, 2024, the official website of the national standard information public service platform released a message showing that the national mandatory standard "Fuel Consumption Limits for Heavy Commercial Vehicles" was officially released on September 29, 2024 and will be implemented on July 1, 2025.
Previously, on June 17, 2022, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) solicited public comments, and the draft showed that the code of this standard has been GB 30510-XXXX, which means that the release date and implementation date are to be determined. The standard code GB 30510-2024 has been clarified, replacing GB 30510-2018, which marks that the fuel consumption limit standard that the heavy-duty vehicle industry continues to focus on will be officially implemented in the second half of next year. The impact of this standard on the heavy-duty commercial vehicle industry is extraordinary.
The national standard "Fuel Consumption Limits for Heavy Commercial Vehicles" is jointly centralized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Transport, and entrusted to the TC114SC32 (Automotive Energy Conservation Branch of the National Automotive Standardization Technical Committee) to implement, and the main drafting units are China Automotive Technology and Research Center Co., Ltd., the Equipment Industry Development Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and major heavy-duty commercial vehicle manufacturers. Also known in the industry as the "Four-Stage Fuel Consumption Standard", the fuel consumption limits for heavy-duty commercial vehicles in Stages 1, 2 and 3 were implemented in 2012, 2014 and 2019 respectively.
The fuel consumption limit scheme was determined, and it was tightened by about 15% across the board
The scope of applicable models, evaluation units, benchmark parameters and evaluation system of the standard continue to follow the overall idea and framework determined by the GB 30510-2018 standard, and are managed in a stepwise manner with the limit value of a single vehicle. Specifically, "L/100km" is used as the evaluation unit, and the "maximum design total mass" with the highest linear correlation with "L/100km" is used as the benchmark parameter group to determine the fuel consumption limit.
The main changes of GB 30510-2024 compared with GB 30510-2018 are as follows:
Fuel consumption limits for all types of vehicles have been tightened. Overall, the fuel consumption limits for vehicles in this standard (Phase IV) have been tightened by 12% to 16% compared with the previous version (Phase III).
The calculation method of the reference value of CO2 emissions corresponding to the limit value has been added.
Production consistency requirements have been changed.
Extended certification requirements have been added.
The test condition is converted to the Chinese condition
This limit standard adopts the newly released GB/T 27840-2021 "Fuel Consumption Measurement Method for Heavy Commercial Vehicles", and the test conditions have been converted to the CHTC test under Chinese working conditions. The fuel consumption limits for heavy-duty commercial vehicles in the previous three phases were tested in accordance with the C-WTVC condition, which is revised for the harmonized conditions of the heavy-duty vehicle world.
Combined with the impact of this standard limit on the switching of working conditions, a large number of thorough tests have been carried out, and the limit index has been considered and converted accordingly in combination with the statistical results of different categories and different quality vehicles when the limit value is formulated.
How stressful is updating standard limits on businesses? How are businesses responding?
From the perspective of the actual tightening of the standard, it has been tightened by about 15% on average compared with the previous stage, which is a big challenge.
According to the instructions for the preparation of the draft for comments, in order to systematically study the potential of heavy-duty commercial vehicle technology to reduce consumption, an industry-wide energy-saving technology survey was carried out to collect the energy-saving potential, cost, current application proportion and 2025 application proportion forecast of 39 technologies in five aspects, such as engine, transmission and body, and on this basis, the energy-saving technology potential and cost analysis of the future heavy-duty commercial vehicle industry were carried out.
In the next stage of commercial vehicle consumption reduction, in addition to continuous optimization and improvement of engine efficiency, it is also necessary to improve transmission efficiency, reduce drag and electrification technology. According to the industry's energy-saving technology penetration rate, energy-saving potential and other data, the five types of commercial vehicles decreased by 10.2%~12.6% compared with 2020, which can basically achieve the goal of this standard limit.
To sum up, there are still many routes for car companies to reduce fuel consumption, mainly around improving engine efficiency, reducing air and rolling resistance, improving transmission efficiency, model optimization, etc., in addition, some companies may also choose to adopt hybrid and other electrification technology routes, which require the joint efforts of commercial vehicle and parts companies.