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Indicator Specification
Increasingly tight regulations have resulted in the gradual introduction of more fuel-efficient, less polluting, less noisy and generally safer road vehicles. The average age of the vehicle fleet is therefore an indirect indication of the environmental performance of road transport. For this specific indicator, the overall objective is to record the improvement of the fleet composition in terms of age, whereby older, more polluting vehicles are replaced with newer, cleaner ones. The adoption of car scrappage schemes, import bans on certain vehicles, financial incentives, and mandatory periodical inspection and maintenance schemes could help to decrease the average age of vehicles.
This indicator is defined as the mean age of vehicles specified by the following vehicle categories: passenger cars, light duty vehicles, heavy duty vehicles, buses, coaches, mopeds and motorcycles.
Average age is expressed in years.
Car scrappage schemes have not yet been introduced at EU level. The European Parliament and Council have issued Directive 2000/53/EC on end-of-life vehicles (ELV Directive), which states the need for harmonising the various measures adopted at country level on the treatment of end-of-life vehicles. In addition, the ELV Directive stresses the need for adopting a Community-wide framework for this purpose, but does not include any specific car scrappage schemes. The ELV Directive, as amended by Directive 2008/53/EC and other Commission Decisions, requires that Member States set up systems to ensure ELVs are treated within authorised treatment facilities, sets progressively higher reuse, recycling and recovery targets and an ultimate recovery target of 95 % by weight by 2015, encourages manufactures to design their vehicles with recyclability in mind, and restricts the use of heavy metals in the manufacture of new vehicles.
The environmental performance of vehicles has improved considerably over recent decades as a result of increasingly tighter emissions regulations in Europe. Hence, a quick replacement of older cars with new ones, results in an overall improvement of the environmental performance of the vehicle fleet, presuming activity is constant. Automotive emissions have been regulated in Europe since 1970 with the implementation of the parent European Council Directive 70/220/EEC. This Directive was the result of an intensive period of consultation between member countries of the European Economic Commission (EEC) at that time. At the beginning of the 1970s, the United Nations Economic Committee for Europe (UNECE) established Regulation 15, which, together with its various amendments, delivered the first coherent automotive emissions control policy in Europe for vehicles of less than 3.5 tonnes in mass.
Since the 1970s, the key mechanism by which vehicle air pollutant emissions have been regulated has been through the setting of exhaust emissions limits. As with CO2 measurements, vehicle conformance with the required limits is checked on the basis of standardised laboratory emissions measurements. The first European Council Directive to specify measures against air pollution from motor vehicles was published in 1970 (EU, 1970). Around 20 years later — in 1992 — the 'Euro' emissions standards were introduced, starting with the 'Euro 1' step, followed, generally, by successively stricter standards: Euro 2 to Euro 6. At present, in 2016, only Euro 6 vehicles can be sold in the EU. At the same time, with all the regulatory improvements in emissions control and specific fuel-efficiency targets, CO2 emissions targets were set independently for cars and vans (see TERM027 for more information).
Smoke levels of heavy duty diesel engines were historically controlled using an opacimeter on steady state and free acceleration tests, as specified in Council Directive 72/306/EEC. The legislation imposed maximum limits for the emission of visible smoke. The first gaseous pollutant limits were developed by UNECE in 1982 with the development of Regulation 49, which set the techniques and limits for the control of CO, HC and NOx. The work at UNECE was later taken up by European Council Directive 88/77/EEC, which first established mandatory limits for new types of on-road diesel engines with regard to their gaseous emissions. Directive 91/542/EEC established the first “Euro” based emissions limits for heavy duty engines, including the regulation of particulate matter emissions, as a consequence of the intensive discussions within the activities of Auto Oil I and follow up revisions by the European Council and the Parliament. These two steps aimed at bringing heavy duty vehicle emissions control on a par with their light duty counterparts. These earlier steps were followed by Decision 1999/96/EC which, in total, defined four new steps for heavy duty vehicle emissions control from 2000 to 2014 (i.e. until the introduction of Euro VI). One significant concept introduced was the definition of Enhanced Environmentally friendly Vehicles (EEVs), i.e. a stringent voluntary emissions step introduced as early as in 2000. This step was more stringent even than the much later introduced Euro V.
Inspection and maintenance programmes are of great importance to the environmental performance of the vehicle fleet. Properly maintained vehicles can be of higher age as long as their environmental performance does not differ too much from the newest technologies. The roadworthiness test Directive 2009/40/EC, repealing Directive 96/96/EC, harmonises the frequency of roadworthiness tests and details which parts of motor vehicles must be tested. The directive aims at maintaining emissions at a low level throughout the useful life of a vehicle by means of regular exhaust emissions tests and ensuring that high emitters are withdrawn until they are brought to a proper state of maintenance.
There are no specific objectives or targets related to the average age of the vehicle fleet. Policy objectives are rather set with respect to the environmental performance of the fleet.
The population of each vehicle category is distributed in age classes, ranging from 1 to 30 years. The average age is calculated by multiplying the number of vehicles in each class by the mean age of the class (i.e. 0.5, 1.5, 2.5 years etc.) and then dividing the sum of these products by the total number of vehicles in the respective vehicle category (passenger cars, light duty vehicles, heavy duty vehicles, buses, coaches, mopeds and motorcycles).
Since the average age is modelled, no gap-filling is necessary.
No methodology references available.
No uncertainty has been specified
Since the data on the average age of road vehicles are modelled rather than measured, they must be treated as estimates. It should be noted though, that a number of reliable national and international data sources on fleet characterisation (including, for example, Eurostat, ACEA, national experts, etc.) have been used as input to the model. The average age should ideally be 'weighted' to the usage of the vehicle - i.e. the average vehicle-kilometre age of a car.
No uncertainty has been specified
Work specified here requires to be completed within 1 year from now.
No resource needs have been specified
Work specified here will require more than 1 year (from now) to be completed.
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/average-age-of-the-vehicle-fleet or scan the QR code.
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