New Fuel Efficiency Standards for Trucks and Buses Formulated

1. Background

Under the Act on the Rational Use of Energy, the ministries set the FY2015 Fuel Efficiency Standards for heavy vehicles, and all related companies have already met the standards. However, from the perspective of energy policy, the ministries consider it necessary to request companies to further enhance the energy efficiency of heavy vehicles.

To this end, the council of experts for discussing fuel efficiency standards (*1) jointly established by METI and MLIT held discussions on new fuel efficiency standards for heavy vehicles and, in December 2017, compiled the discussions results into new such standards in which FY2025 is set as the target fiscal year when manufacturers should achieve the defined fuel efficiencies for such vehicles.

Based on the compilation, METI and MLIT decided to revise, as necessary, the Standards for Determining Manufacturers and Other Companies of Energy Consumption Machines Concerning the Improvement of the Passenger Vehicles Performance in Terms of Fuel Consumption (Public Notice of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism No. 2 of 2013) and the Standards for Determining Manufacturers and Other Companies of Energy Consumption Machines Concerning the Improvement of the Motor Truck Performance in Terms of Fuel Consumption (Public Notice of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Notification No. 1 of 2015).

*Note 1:
The council is a joint meeting of: the Subcommittee on Standards for Automobiles Energy Efficiency of the Automobiles Committee under the Land Traffic Committee of the Transport Policies Council; and the Working Group on Classification Standards for Automobiles of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Subcommittee of the Committee on Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy under the Advisory Committee for Natural Resources and Energy.

2. Outline of the new fuel efficiency standards

⸰ Target fiscal year: FY2025

⸰ New fuel efficiency standards:

• Trucks and other heavy vehicles: 7.63 km/L (*2) (enhanced by approximately 13.4% from the existing FY2015 standards)
• Buses: 6.52 km/L (*2) (enhanced by approximately 14.3% from the existing FY2015 standards)
• *Note 2: The figures are the results of calculating weighted harmonic means of the fuel efficiency standards by gross-weight category of heavy vehicles, based on the data on FY2014 sales performance.

⸰ Targets of the new standards: Diesel vehicles

3. Future schedule

Promulgation and enforcement: March 29 (Fri.), 2019

Reference:

As for the Standards for Determining Manufacturers and Other Companies of Energy Consumption Machines Concerning the Improvement of the Passenger Vehicles Performance in Terms of Fuel Consumption (Public Notice of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism No. 2 of 2013) and the Standards for Determining Manufacturers and Other Companies of Energy Consumption Machines Concerning the Improvement of the Motor Truck Performance in Terms of Fuel Consumption (Public Notice of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Notification No. 1 of 2015), respectively, visit the METI website.

• https://www.enecho.meti.go.jp/category/saving_and_new/saving/enterprise/equipment/pdf/01_jidousha.pdf
• https://www.enecho.meti.go.jp/category/saving_and_new/saving/enterprise/equipment/pdf/08_kamotsu.pdf

Division in Charge

Energy Efficiency Division, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Department, Agency for Natural Resources and Energy