During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, it is necessary to continue to dig deeper into the trucking industry's potential to reduce pollution and carbon emissions, and to enhance the green competitiveness of trucks.
More than a dozen heavy trucks are charging at a charging station open to the public on Linhu Road in the western suburbs of Zhengzhou.
The transportation industry is a key area of China's pollution reduction and carbon reduction, as well as synergy. Among them, the trucks with smaller ownership and higher emissions should not be ignored. It is understood that trucks account for only 11% of vehicle ownership, but their carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate emissions account for 50%, 80% and more than 90% of the total emissions of automobiles, respectively. How to reduce the truck as the carrier of the road freight emissions become China's freight industry, and even the transportation industry to achieve the "dual-carbon" goal of the key.
"2023 China Green Freight Pioneer" forum held in Beijing, Asia Clean Air Center, Tsinghua University School of the Environment and new energy vehicle national big data alliance jointly released the latest report "Green Truck List China truck pollution reduction and carbon reduction progress study" pointed out that China's diesel trucks to carry out pollution control battle has achieved stage-by-stage results, diesel trucks pollutant emissions. Stage-by-stage results have been achieved, pollutant emissions from diesel trucks have continued to decline, and the development of new energy trucks has entered the fast lane. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, it is necessary to continue to dig deeper into the trucking industry to reduce pollution and carbon potential, and enhance the green competitiveness of trucks.
Diesel trucks emissions reduction results
Asian Center for Clean Air, director of the Transportation Program, introduced: China began through the new car standards upgrade to gradually promote emissions reduction of freight trucks. 'Thirteenth Five-Year' period, truck pollution reduction and carbon reduction ushered in a key development node, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and other 11 departments jointly issued the "Diesel Truck Pollution Control War Action Plan". Under the support and guidance of the plan, China's truck pollution reduction and carbon reduction work has achieved stage-by-stage results."
The report shows that diesel trucks remain the mainstay of new truck sales, accounting for more than 90 percent. China's truck ownership grew by 20 percent, while NOx and particulate emissions fell by 7.5 percent and 6.5 percent respectively over the same period. Diesel truck emission levels have been significantly reduced.
The upgrade of fuel consumption standards continues to reduce the level of fuel consumption of new vehicles, the increase in emissions regulation and the improvement of the emissions regulatory system plays an important role in promoting diesel trucks to reduce pollution and carbon. "Thanks to the upgrading of new vehicle standards, especially the implementation of the National Sixth Standard, the emission reduction effect of diesel trucks is more significant than ever. The annual inspection and follow-up test data show that the NOx emission concentration of National VI trucks is 56%-73% lower than that of National V trucks, with obvious emission reduction advantages."
A professor at Tsinghua University's School of Environment gave accurate data. "After three years of action, nationwide diesel vehicle NOx emissions have been cut by 14 percent and fine particulate emissions by 23 percent."
The director engineer of the Environmental Resources Institute of the Ministry of Transportation's Environmental Planning Research Institute, on the other hand, pointed out that transportation restructuring is also one of the main initiatives in the first phase of the diesel vehicle battle. The Ministry of Transportation makes full use of vehicle purchase tax funds to support transportation restructuring efforts. The national railroad freight volume grew to 4.9 billion tons, an increase of nearly 50% compared to 2016, and the share of railroad freight volume increased by three percentage points, with significant results in transport structural adjustment."
New energy trucks become a wind vane
On the one hand, the transition is being promoted by reducing diesel truck emissions and use, on the other hand, accelerating the electrification of trucks to set up a new wind vane for the development of trucks "At the same time that effective progress has been made in the reduction of emissions from diesel trucks, the market for new energy trucks is booming. Into the '14th Five-Year Plan', new energy truck development pressed the accelerator button."
New Energy Vehicle National Big Data Alliance executive secretary-general said that in 2022, China's new energy truck sales reached 172,000, relative to the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" at the end of the growth of about 4.6 times. Among them, the sales of pure electric trucks and hydrogen fuel cell trucks will reach 168,000 units and 30.74 million units respectively, an increase of about 4.5 times and 37.9 times compared with the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan.
The report points out that the electrification of trucks in China presents three major features. First, the promotion of truck electrification of the number of cities continue to improve, the second and third-tier cities to promote the fast track, four or five cities have also begun to become an important position for the promotion; second is the layout of new energy trucks, the number of rapid growth in the number of enterprises, products blossomed, the competition is gradually fierce; third is the new energy truck application scenarios continue to broaden, a wide range of types of vehicles to cover different configurations.
Behind the rapid development of new energy trucks is the favorable policy and rapid technological upgrading. "Take new energy heavy trucks as an example, in 2020-2022, the sales of new energy heavy trucks increased 7.7 times, and the penetration rate increased from 0.2% to 7.8%. 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology launched a pilot project for the application of new energy vehicles in the mode of power switching, coupled with the introduction of the "Medium and Long-term Plan for the Development of the Hydrogen Energy Industry (2021-2035)", which has boosted power-switching technology as well as hydrogen fuel cell technology development, promoting breakthroughs in self-exchange heavy trucks and hydrogen fuel cell heavy trucks."
It also affirmed the positive role of the policy in promoting new energy trucks. "Up to now, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications has released three batches of green freight distribution demonstration project to create a list of cities selected, *** there are 77 cities selected, the number of new energy logistics trucks put into the number and proportion of both increased significantly."
Expect technological breakthroughs
November 2022, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and other 15 departments jointly issued the "Diesel Truck Pollution Control Tackling Action Program" clearly put forward, by 2025, the transportation structure, vehicle and vessel structure clean and low-carbon significantly improve the degree of fuel quality continues to improve, the national diesel truck emission testing pass rate of more than 90%, the national diesel truck NOx Emissions from diesel trucks decreased by 12%, the share of new energy and national six emission standard trucks strive to exceed 40%, and the share of rail freight volume increased by 0.5 percentage points.
"On the previous emission control system, the action program set a clearer goal of emission reduction. The freight industry still needs to accelerate its transformation as it moves toward zero-emission cleanup. "Currently in a period of undertaking, how to continue to dig deeper into the trucking industry's potential to reduce pollution and carbon emissions, broaden the use of new energy vehicle scenarios, and enhance green competitiveness is a key issue to be considered in the next phase."
Liu Shaohui, deputy minister of the Green Low Carbon Department of the China Automotive Technology Research Center Standards Institute, believes that technological upgrading is an important way for trucks to reduce carbon emissions, and that there is still a 12%-15% reduction potential in fuel consumption for commercial vehicles at the technical level. However, to promote truck fuel consumption reduction in the future, it is necessary to do a good job of internal resource coordination and joint multi-sectoral collaborative innovation. In addition, for different application scenarios and model requirements of trucks, systematic consideration and targeted analysis are needed.
The report points out that the trucking industry needs to make continuous breakthroughs in tailpipe emission control technology, energy-saving technology, and new energy technology. The strengthening of the relevant environmental standards will help promote technology research and development and industrial application, and promote the trucking industry towards ultra-low emissions and zero emissions. Especially in the field of new energy trucks, the level of new energy trucks is still relatively low, and there is a large space for development in terms of market scale, utilization rate, intensity of use and scene adaptability. Enterprises can focus on battery energy density, energy saving and supplemental energy technology to enhance user recognition of new energy trucks.