Prime Minister sets emissions standards for used cars

HÀ NỘI — Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc has set a new roadmap to apply emission standards for road vehicles, including imported used cars.

The official Vietnamese regulation titled “Road vehicles – maximum permitted limits of exhaust gases” includes four standards, with standard 1 being the highest permitted limit.

In the roadmap, standard 1 applies to vehicles with positive-ignition and compression-ignition engines produced before 1999, while standard 2 applies to vehicles manufactured from 1999 to 2008 (effective January 1, 2021) and to vehicles made after 2008 (effective January 1, 2020). 

On October 10, 2005, the then Prime Minister, Phan Văn Khải, issued a decision stipulating a roadmap for emission standards for road vehicles. Since the first years of implementation of the decision, the control of emissions of locally manufactured and assembled automobiles and imported cars has brought significant results.

However, as of May 5, 2018, the number of cars on the roads had risen 3.22 times to nearly 305,800 compared to that of 2008, contributing to air pollution, especially a significant increase in urban air pollution.

On September 1, 2011, the then Prime Minister, Nguyễn Tấn Dũng, also issued a new decision in which newly manufactured and assembled and imported cars must meet Euro 4 emission standards by January 1, 2017 and Euro 5 standards by January 1, 2022. — VNS