Standards for fuels and vehicles

As a result of tougher vehicle emission and fuel quality standards emissions from cars and trucks will continue to decline over the next 10 years, continuing the trend of the last 30 years.

Vehicle emission standards

Australia’s vehicle emission standards are known as Australian Design Rules (ADRs).

Australia has a commitment to harmonise with the vehicle standards developed by the UN Economic Commission for Europe , or “Euros.”

Revisions of the ADRs has progressively brought Australia’s emissions standards into closer alignment with European standards:

• ADR 79/00 (Emissions Control for Light Vehicles) introduced Euro 2 emission standards for new light vehicles operating on diesel from 1 January 2002, and for new light vehicles operating on petrol, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Natural Gas (NG) vehicles from 1 January 2003.
• ADR 80/00 (Emission Control for Heavy Vehicles) introduced Euro 3 emission standards for new heavy vehicles operating on diesel, LPG and CNG from 1 January 2002; for new heavy vehicles operating on petrol from 1 January 2003.
• ADR 79/01 introduced Euro 3 emission standards for light vehicles operating on petrol, LPG or NG from 2005 and for light vehicles operating on diesel fuel from 2006.
• ADR 80/01 introduced Euro 4 emissions standards for heavy vehicles operating on petrol from 2005 and for heavy vehicles operating on diesel, LPG and NG from 2006.
• ADR 80/02 (Euro 4) was implemented for heavy vehicles which run on diesel, liquefied petroleum gas or natural gas from January 2007 for new model vehicles and from 29 February 2008 for existing models of vehicle.
• ADR 79/02 (Euro 4) was implemented for new model light petrol, LPG and NG vehicles from July 2008 and from July 2010 for all light vehicles.
• ADR 80/03 (Euro 5) will be implemented for new model heavy vehicles with a GVM greater than 3.5 tonnes, which run on diesel, liquefied petroleum gas, petrol or natural gas from 2010 and from 2011 for all heavy vehicles.

A summary of these standards can be found at: http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/roads/motor/design/adr_online.aspx

Fuel standards

Standards for fuel in Australia applied from the introduction of the national Fuel Quality Standards Act 2000. The following determinations have been made under this Act:

• Fuel Standard (Automotive Diesel) Determination 2001 limited sulphur levels in Australian diesel fuel to 500 parts per million (ppm) from 1 January 2003. This was further reduced to 50ppm from 1 January 2006 and will be reduced to 10ppm from 1 January 2009.
• Fuel Standard (Petrol) Determination 2001 reduced sulphur levels in Australian unleaded petrol fuel to 500ppm from January 2002. This has been further reduced to 150ppm from 1 January 2005 and to 50ppm from 1 January 2008.

Reducing the sulphur content of fuel reduces fine particle pollution and also enables the use of high technology low-emission engines.