UNECE Joint Task Force on Environmental Indicators

Item 3 (f)Average Age of Road Motor Vehicle

Fleet

Importance of age of vehicle fleet

• According to the EEA, road transport is responsible for 17.5 % of overall greenhouse gas emissions in Europe and its emissions increased by 23 % between 1990 and 2009.

• The age of a road motor vehicle has an impact on the amounts of the various types of emission.

• According to the EEA, average CO2 emissions for new cars registered in 2011 were 3.3% less than new cars registered in 2010.

• See http://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/transport

UK Experience

• Road transport accounts for 19% of UK green house gas emissions.

• Estimate of how emissions of different gases per km vary depend on vehicle speed for different vehicle types/ fuel type/ year of first registration (used as a proxy for Euro emissions class)/ engine size/ etc

• http://assets.dft.gov.uk/statistics/series/energy-and-environment/climatechangefactsheets.pdf

Regulatory Changes

• To help achieve reductions in transport emissions, strict targets have been introduced in the European Union and other major economies for vehicle fuel efficiency.

• Manufacturers are committed to achieving in a definite programme over time specific and gradually tighter fuel consumption levels for the new vehicles they produce

• The size and importance of these economies has implication for all world vehicle manufacturers

Technical Advances

• Motor manufacturers have responded by improving the efficiency of vehicle engines and the aerodynamics of the vehicle to reduce fuel consumption.

Implications

• Each generation of vehicles is more fuel efficient and emits fewer emissions than earlier vehicles.

• The average age of the vehicle fleet in a country is therefore a helpful indicator of the level of emissions created by that country’s vehicles

Definitions

• Vehicle fleet• Age of vehicle

Vehicle fleet

• All motor vehicles licensed to operate on a country’s roads at a given date– Passenger cars– Motor coach, bus or trolleybus– Truck– Road tractor

Vehicle RegisterDate of first registration

• Countries maintain registers of vehicles licensed to operate on their roads for– Police– Taxation

• It is important for this indicator that these registers contain the date when the vehicle was first licensed for use

• This date of first registration is normally the date to be used to calculate the age of the vehicle

Problem

• Used vehicles from abroad• The date of first registration in the country

accepting foreign used vehicles will not properly reflect the date of manufacture or of first use

• It will therefore underestimate the age of the vehicle and its emissions performance

Date of first registration

• This should be the earliest date of first registration of the vehicle in any country in which it has been registered.

• The Harmonised Registration Certificate records this information for foreign second hand cards for all EU countries.

Example

• A Mercedes was registered in Austria with Austrian number plates for the first time in 2008

• In 2012, it was exported to Albania where it was reregistered and given Albanian number plates.

• Two dates of first registration– 2008 Austria First country registration– 2012 Albania Second country registration

• Chose the earliest i.e. 2008 if known or, if this is available, from the harmonised registration certificate

First country registration not known

• Adjust the date of first registration by some factor

Provision of statistics

• For every year’s data to be provided, a copy of the vehicle register is needed as it stood on a specific fixed date within the year e.g. – 1 January– 31 December– 30 June

• Which of these is appropriate depends on the arrangements with the keeper of the register.

Age distribution (1)

• For each vehicle on the vehicle register– Determine its age from the date of first

registration– Allocate each vehicle among the age groups• Age <= 2 years• 2 years< age <= 5 years • 5 years< age <= 10 years• Age > 10 years

Age distribution (2)

• Compile the totals for each age group and calculate the percentage each group represents of the total

• This allows the calculation of an average age for the vehicle fleet

Thank you