Australia: Light-duty: Emissions

Overview

 * Standard type: Conventional pollutant emission limits
 * Regulating bodies: Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development
 * Current standard: Australian Design Rule 79/04 - Emission Control for Light Vehicles 2011 Amendment 1, 16 May 2012 (equivalent to Euro 4)
 * Future standards: Euro 5 in November 2013; Euro 6 April 2017/ July 2017 / April 2018 for M1 / N1 / all models, respectively; long term policy is to fully harmonize Australian regulations with UN ECE standards.
 * Applicability: New vehicles including petrol (gasoline) and diesel cars, light goods vehicles, and medium goods vehicles, as well as forward control passenger vehicles and larger motor tricycles.

History
The Australian Design Rules (ADRs) are national standards for vehicle safety, anti-theft, and emissions. The ADRs are based on performance and cover issues such as rider protection, structures, lighting, noise, engine exhaust emissions, braking, and a range of miscellaneous items. The current standards, the Third Edition ADRs, are administered by the Australian Government under the Motor Vehicle Standards Act 1989.

The long term policy is to fully harmonize Australian regulations with UN ECE standards. The regulations (ADRs) are administered by the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development.

The emission standards apply to new vehicles including petrol (gasoline) and diesel cars, light goods vehicles, and medium goods vehicles, as well as to forward control passenger vehicles and larger motor tricycles. Vehicle definitions can be found here.

The evolution of vehicle emission standards in Australia occurred through a number of regulatory actions. Some of the important steps can be summarized as follows:
 * Emission standards for petrol engined light vehicles commenced in the early 1970s.
 * A smoke emission requirement (ADR30/00) was introduced in 1976 for vehicles with 4 or more wheels powered by a diesel engine. The alternative smoke standards were US EPA &#8217;74 or later or British standards “Performance of Diesel Engines for Road Vehicles” BS AU 141a:1971 or ECE R 24/00, 24/01, 24/02 or 24/03 “Diesel and Pollutants” or, in the case of an engine alone, ECE R 24/03.


 * In 1995, emission standards were introduced via ADR70/00 (adopting ECE R49, US &amp; Japanese HDV standards). The requirements of the 1995/96 standards were:
 * Required: Euro 1 for both light-duty and heavy-duty vehicles. Euro 2 and 3 were also accepted though not included in the regulation.
 * Acceptable alternatives: US EPA &#8217;91 or &#8217;94 (EPA &#8217;98 was also accepted though not included in the regulation); 1993 Japanese exhaust emission standards for “light duty and medium duty vehicles” and 1994 Japanese exhaust emission standards for “passenger cars and heavy duty vehicles.”
 * A second round of more stringent emission standards applied from 2002/2003 model year (for new/existing models). The standards—initially equivalent to Euro 2/3—have been gradually tightened to adopt Euro 4 for light-duty cars and trucks (diesel and petrol).
 * A third round of emission regulations (ADR 79/03 and ADR 79/04), adopted in 2011, mandates Euro 5/6 emission standards for light-duty vehicles with an implementation schedule from 2013 to 2018. ADR79/05, which will implement the Euro 6 emission standards in Australia, will be formally determined by the Minister when the source standard (UN Regulation 83) is updated to incorporate the Euro 6 requirements adopted in the EU in the 2017-2018 timeframe.

Emission Standards
The emission standards were introduced via a series of new ADRs, which apply to vehicles depending on their gross vehicle mass (GVM):
 * For light-duty vehicles at or below 3.5 t GVM:
 * Euro 2, 3, and 4: ADR79/00, ADR79/01, and ADR79/02 (replacing ADR37/01)
 * Euro 5 and 6: ADR79/03, ADR79/04, and ADR79/05

The requirements and the implementation schedules are summarized below.

Other Provisions
Smoke Limits

A smoke emissions ADR 30/01 also applies to all categories of diesel vehicles. The smoke standard, which applies from 2002/2003, adopts UN ECE R24 and allows the US 94 smoke standards as an alternative. This new ADR replaces ADR 30/00.

OBD

ADR 79/03-05 introduce European OBD requirements for light-duty vehicles. At the ‘core’ Euro 5 stage (ADR79/03) a relaxed OBD threshold limit for PM mass of 80 mg/km is accepted for M and N category vehicles of reference mass above 1760 kg.

Diesel Fuel

The new emission requirements were synchronized with new diesel fuel specifications of reduced sulfur content, as follows:
 * 500 ppm sulfur effective 31 December 2002
 * 50 ppm sulfur effective 1 January 2006
 * 10 ppm sulfur effective 1 January 2009

Regulatory documents
Australian Design Rules
 * ADR 79/04 - Emission Control for Light Vehicles, 16 May 2012
 * ADR 79/03 - Emission Control for Light Vehicles. 14 September 2011
 * ADR 30/01 - Smoke Emission Control for Diesel Vehicles, 21 March 2006

Motor Vehicle Standards Act 1989

UN Regulations
 * UN ECE Regulation No. 83 - Rev.4 - Emissions of M1 and N1 vehicles and its amendments
 * Regulation No. 24 - Rev.2 - Visible pollutants, measurement of power of C.I. engines (Diesel smoke)

Regulatory agencies

Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development