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Indicator Assessment
TERM34 Estimated share of pre Euro/conventional and Euro I-V gasoline and diesel passenger cars and light-duty vehicles
Note: TREMOVE results refer to 30 EEA member countries (that is EU-27 plus Norway, Switzerland and Turkey).
Vehicle category split in technology classes, 1995-2008 from TREMOVE v3.1
Allocation of heavy-duty vehicles and two-wheelers to the various emission standards
Note: The graph shows the estimated share of pre Euro/conventional and Euro I-V heavy-duty trucks, buses and coaches and conventional and 97/24/EC mopeds and motorcycles in 30 EEA member countries, in 1995 and 2009.
Vehicle stock data for road transport are modelled data derived from TREMOVE (http://www.tremove.org/model/index.htm).
A factor that has limited the benefits of new technologies is the slow market penetration of these technologies; the average age of passenger cars in the EEA has decreased slightly from 1995 to 2009 (see TERM 33 - Average age of the vehicle fleet). This development can be partly explained by the fact that new cars are bought, but old cars are kept. Indeed, the number of cars per household has increased (see TERM 32 - Size and composition of the vehicle fleet), confirming that new technologies need a long time to penetrate fully. Moreover, new models may be of better quality and therefore have a longer lifetime than less recent vehicles.
One proxy-indicator that can be used to show the rate of penetration of new technologies is the share of passenger cars fitted with catalytic converters. For passenger cars, it has taken more than 15 years to reach a 92 % penetration of this technology. However, this indicator alone is not sufficient for a complete assessment of the environmental benefits gained by the penetration of any new technology. In order to have a better overview of the environmental performance of the vehicle fleet, the annual share of kilometres driven by vehicles with older technology needs to be known. Older vehicles are generally used less than newer ones, which means that the emissions reductions achieved are higher than the above indicator may suggest. In the case of passenger cars, the vehicle-kilometres allocated to non-catalyst cars is about 3.5 %, which is lower than their share in the total passenger car fleet (5.7 %).
Passenger cars, and especially diesel cars , have the highest penetration of the latest emission standards as shown in Figure 1. In 2009, 6.4 % and 10.2 % of all petrol and diesel cars respectively were Euro 5 compliant, while the share of Euro 4 compliant vehicles was 18.5 % and 29 % respectively. This is due to the fact that the diesel car market is continuously expanding (due to the better fuel efficiency of diesel vehicles). More than 63% of passenger cars new registrations in 2009 were diesel vehicles.
For light (LDV) and heavy-duty (HDV) vehicles, the situation is completely different. The average life of a truck is longer than that of a passenger car. Thus the share of trucks complying with the most stringent emission standards and the corresponding rate of penetration of new technologies is relatively low. While in 1995 about 95 % of all LDV and HDV were of conventional technology, the share of vehicles complying with the Euro IV standards by 2009 was 7.1 %, 9.2 % and 15.9 % for petrol LDV, diesel LDV and HDV respectively, while a significant percentage (20.8 %, 26.5 % and 29.4 % respectively) are Euro III vehicles. The penetration of Euro V petrol LDV, diesel LDV and HDV in 2009 is still rather low, accounting for 4 %, 5 % and 0.1 % respectively.
The same picture may also be observed for the buses and coaches. Approximately 24.3 % and 21.8 % of the buses and coaches complied with the Euro III and IV standards respectively in 2009. As regards mopeds and motorcycles, 20.2 % and 19.6 % respectively comply with the Euro III emission limits, while 41.8 % and 51.9 % respectively are still of conventional technology.
The vehicle category split in technology classes is defined as the percentage share of conventional, open loop, Euro 1, Euro 2, Euro 3, Euro 4 and Euro 5 vehicles of each vehicle category (petrol and diesel passenger cars and light duty vehicles, heavy duty vehicles, buses, coaches, mopeds and motorcycles).
The vehicle activity split in technology classes is defined as the percentage share of the total activity (vehicle-kilometres) of conventional, open loop, Euro 1, Euro 2, Euro 3, Euro 4 and Euro 5 vehicles of each vehicle category (petrol and diesel passenger cars and light duty vehicles, heavy duty vehicles, buses, coaches, mopeds and motorcycles).
Vehicle category split in technology classes is presented as a percentage of each technology class for each vehicle category (e.g. the percentage of Euro 3 vehicles in the total petrol passenger car fleet).
Standards requiring the use of catalytic converters on petrol cars first came into force in 1993 with Euro 1 (Directive 91/441/EEC) and were replaced by Directive 94/12/EC introducing the Euro 2 standards in 1997. Emission limits for light commercial vehicles, being subject to less stringent standards than passenger cars, were aligned with these more stringent limit values by Directive 93/59/EEC and Directive 96/69/EC. Directive 98/69/EC introduced Euro 3 standards for passenger cars (in 2001) and light commercial vehicles (in 2002). By means of the same directive, Euro 4 standards (which came into force in 2005 for new type approvals) were defined. With regulation No 715/2007, the European Union has recently introduced stricter limits, particularly for emissions of NOx and PM. Euro 5 and Euro 6 standards will come into force in September 2009 and in September 2014 respectively. For heavy-duty vehicles, the first standards came into force in 1990 with Euro 0 (Directive 88/77/EEC, as amended by Commission Directive 2001/27/EC), which was replaced by Euro I and Euro II in 1993 and 1996, respectively (Directive 91/542/EEC). More stringent emission standards, Euro III, IV and V for 2001, 2006 and 2009 were adopted by Directive 1999/96/EC. This so-called 'Heavy-duty Directive' describes the adoption of additional measures (taking effect from 2005/6), including provisions relating to the development of on-board diagnostic (OBD) and on-board measurement (OBM) systems to monitor in-service exhaust emissions, durability requirements and in-service control, and limits for non-regulated pollutants that may become important as a result of the widespread introduction of new alternative fuels. Current emission limits for motorcycles and mopeds are defined in Directive 2002/51/EC, amending Directive 97/24/EC. The directive and its amendment determine a set of emission limits (both for 2-stroke and 4-stroke motorcycles) for CO, HC and NOx to be applied to motorcycles from 2003 onwards. A further tightening of the emission limits is foreseen, extending Euro 4 standards from 2016. The introduction of 'in-use' checks to prevent high emissions caused by bikers 'tinkering' with engines is also foreseen.
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Policy objectives are set with respect to the emission standards of new vehicles, as explained above. However, no target exists specifying or determining the fraction of the vehicle fleet that should meet these standards. Targets have been set in the urban context, as the 2011 White Paper on Transport states that major urban centres are to achieve essentially CO2-free city logistics by 2030 and that conventionally fuelled cars in cities are to be completely phased out by 2050.
The shares of the various technology classes are calculated by dividing the population of conventional, open loop, Euro 1, Euro 2, Euro 3 and Euro 4 vehicles by the total fleet of each vehicle category (petrol and diesel passenger cars and light duty vehicles, heavy duty vehicles, buses, coaches, mopeds and motorcycles).
Since the number of vehicles, as well as their activity levels (number of kilometres driven per year) included in the various technology classes is modelled, no gap-filling is necessary.
No methodology references available.
No uncertainty has been specified
The shares of the various technology classes and their activity in TREMOVE are based on both statistical data as well as estimations, especially for the new Member States. In principle, the data sets may be considered as reliable, as there is a good agreement with official published data (e.g. Eurostat).
No uncertainty has been specified
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/proportion-of-vehicle-fleet-meeting/proportion-of-vehicle-fleet-meeting-4 or scan the QR code.
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