« Panasonic EV Energy Co. Starting Studies Geared to Mass Production of Li-Ion Cells for Toyota | Main | BLM Publishes Draft Environmental Study for Oil Shale and Tar Sands Resources on Public Lands; Proposes Allocating 1.9M Acres for Development »

Korea to Tighten Fuel Efficiency Standards 15% by 2012

25 December 2007

Chosun Ilbo. Korea’s Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said that it will tighten fuel economy standards for cars by 15% by 2012 compared to 2004, based on an agreement made with the auto industry in late 2005.

Automakers are making efforts not only to enhance fuel efficiency by reducing the size of cars and improving engines and transmissions but also by developing eco-friendly diesel and hybrid vehicles. But the industry predicts that research and development efforts will increase production costs, which in turn will increase car prices.

In 2004, South Korea replaced its voluntary, unenforced standard with a mandatory program that started in 2006 for domestic vehicles and 2009 for imports. The standards are 12.4 km/l (29 mpg US) for vehicles with engine displacements of 1.5 liters or less and 9.6 km/l (22.6 mpg US) for vehicles with engine displacements of more than 1.5 liters. Credits can be earned to offset shortfalls.

A 15% increase would thus put the standards at about 14.3 km/l (33.6 mpg US) for the smaller displacement category and 11 km/l (25.9 mpg US) for the larger.

Resources

• Comparison of World Fuel Economy Standards, IEA 2007

December 25, 2007 in Brief | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/22062/24504990

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Korea to Tighten Fuel Efficiency Standards 15% by 2012:

Comments

Another possitive mini-step.

It is about time we express fuel economy in Km per litre (Km/l) as Japan, Korea, China and other Asian countries do.

The current EU litre per 100 Km (l/100 Km) is confusing for vehicles with very low fuel consumption and could be dropped.

To convert to miles/US gal would require to multiply by 2.35

Posted by: Harvey D | Dec 26, 2007 9:40:11 AM

Post a comment
[Please keep comments on topic. Disagreement is fine, insults, abuse or wild diversions are not. Comments not meeting those standards will be deleted. Abuse of another commenter’s email address will result in the banning of the offender from this site. In an attempt to prevent the posting of insulting and abusive comments, this site maintains a list of prohibited words and phrases, which, unfortunately, grows with time. Including one of the prohibited words or phrases will flag the comment as "spam", and it will be blocked.]