Into the New Year, the implementation time of the four emission standards for diesel vehicles was postponed again. The Ministry of Environmental Protection recently issued a document stating that the time for the implementation of the National IV emission standard for vehicle compression ignition engines and vehicles was postponed to July 1, 2013.

“At present, the country has no major technical problems, but at the market level, the use of the environment is not yet mature. After the implementation of the delay, the company must step up the adjustment of product layout.” A heavy truck company told the "Daily Economic News" reporter.

After experiencing the downturn in the commercial vehicle market in 2011, the industry generally was not optimistic about the market environment in 2012. After declaring that the implementation of the fourth national emission standard was postponed, commercial vehicle companies including heavy trucks once again faced market fluctuations.

The National Environmental Protection Standards Postponed Ministry of Environmental Protection issued an announcement a few days ago that, as of July 1, 2013, all production, import, sales, and registration of vehicle compression ignition engines (mainly diesel engines) and automobiles must comply National standard. This means delaying the date on which the environmental standards for diesel engine vehicles have been raised to the national standard. For the reasons for the extension, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said: "Given the current supply of automotive diesel that satisfies the requirements of the Fourth National Standard, it is still not in place, which severely restricts the implementation progress of the National IV standard. To ensure the implementation of the standard, it is decided to allocate vehicles based on the actual fuel supply. Sub-regional implementation of national standards."

"The implementation of the four national emission standards can reduce pollution, but also effective energy-saving emission reduction. At present, the domestic mainstream commercial vehicle companies have already possessed the country's four technical reserves, the national four models are also increasing the announcement." A heavy truck business people This tells the “Daily Economic News”, “However, the factors that affect the implementation of the Fourth National Standard, in addition to the local supply of low sulphur diesel that meets the National IV emission standards, the urea supplement stations needed for the SCR system are also scarce.”

It is understood that the domestic car companies in the technical plan to upgrade the diesel engine from the national three to four, mostly through the use of selective catalytic reduction (SCR) technology, the use of urea solution to deal with nitrogen oxides in the exhaust. Therefore, diesel vehicles need to add “urea tanks” to the post-treatment system. The urea solution is also the most important reductant in the SCR system.

In the use part, the consumption of urea is relatively low, and the consumption of meeting the Euro IV standard is about 3% of the fuel consumption; however, when there is no urea in the urea tank on the vehicle, the engine emissions will not reach the standard and the vehicle will automatically diagnose. The system will also alarm, affecting the normal use of the vehicle.

“National IV emission vehicles need to add urea on a regular basis, but at present, there is no special urea addition station in China, which makes it difficult for the use of State IV vehicles in later periods,” the heavy-duty company official told Daily Economic News.

It is understood that the National IV emission standard was originally scheduled to be implemented on January 1, 2011. On December 21, 2010, the Ministry of Environmental Protection stated that the implementation time of the four standards for diesel vehicles above 3.5 tons was postponed for one year, which was formally implemented on January 1, 2012. This time, it was postponed until July 1, 2013 again.

The heavy-duty truck market is in the doldrums. "At present, we are accelerating the speed of collision tests and application announcements of some of the country's three new cars. After the country's four emissions are delayed, the research and development of the four models will be suspended." A heavy truck company official told the "Daily Economic News" reporter. According to him, it takes two or three months for the new product to be tested for collisions and production announcements, so the new model of the country’s four new models will be delayed.

For heavy-duty truck manufacturers, due to the postponement of the National IV emission standard, the new four-nation model that was originally scheduled to be released will also be postponed and the new model will be relocated to the national three models.

“Emissions standard upgrades will bring about the first increase in costs. With the addition of a tail gas after-treatment system, the cost of car purchases will increase. According to the average level of the industry, the price of the country’s four cars will be 10,000 to 30,000 higher than the country’s three cars. Yuan.” Beiqi Foton related sources said, “So it is definitely the third national model more recognized by the market.”

"This year, the market still has no positive factors, but it should not be worse than in 2011. The entire heavy truck market should maintain a size of 850,000 to 900,000 vehicles, entering a period of slow growth," the industry sources said. For such a forecast, "Daily Economic News" reporter has also been confirmed from other heavy truck companies.

Guo Zhongnan, head of the Propaganda Department of China National Heavy Duty Truck Group, also told reporters that in response to the continued downturn in the heavy-duty truck market, CNHTC also plans to gradually shift from heavy-duty trucks to heavy-duty trucks and light trucks.

“Especially light trucks will become an important growth point for CNHTC in 2012. In addition, JMC's Jinan Base will accelerate the layout of its mid-to-high end product line and its models will be rich.” Guo Huanan said, “On National IV and State III There will be product distribution."

Cinda Securities auto industry analyst Xing Haizhi told the "Daily Economic News" reporter that most manufacturers can meet standards. Therefore, “strict standards are actually a good thing for them and can eliminate small-scale or low-end products.” He also pointed out that if it is implemented in the second half of 2013, there may be a situation of concentrated consumption in the first half of the year. The growth in sales will be driven, but in the second half of the year it will also be affected.