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| Smog on a main thoroughfare in Harbin, China, in November. Officials are under intense pressure to rein in dangerous air pollution. Credit Tao Zhang/Getty Images |
China
is suspending the production of more than 500 car models and model
versions that do not meet its fuel economy standards, several automakers
confirmed Tuesday, the latest move by Beijing to reduce emissions in
the world’s largest auto market and take the lead in battling climate
change.
The
government-affiliated China Vehicle Technology Service Center said that
the suspension, effective Jan. 1, would affect both domestic carmakers
and foreign joint ventures.
The move was expected to affect a small share of car manufacturing in China, where 28 million vehicles were produced in 2016.
China has dozens of small-scale automakers — some producing just a few
hundred cars a year — and the central government has tried to
consolidate its auto industry, a factor that most likely also played a
role in the suspension. Model versions — for example, different
combinations of an engine and transmission — are constantly being
deregistered.
Cui
Dongshu, the secretary general of the China Passenger Car Association,
said that the ban would affect at most 1 percent of the Chinese market.
But the government’s decision to cite fuel economy in the deregistration
of so many versions at the same time is nonetheless a signal of the
government’s commitment to fuel economy.
The
country, which for years prioritized economic growth over environmental
protection and now produces more than a quarter of the world’s
human-caused greenhouse gases, has emerged as an unlikely bastion of
climate action after President Trump’s rejection of the Paris climate agreement.
Chinese leaders are under intense pressure to rein in dangerous air pollution, a hot-button issue in China, where thick smog has at times forced schools and businesses to temporarily shut down.
Late last month, China said it was going ahead with plans to create the
world’s largest carbon market, giving Chinese power companies a
financial incentive to operate more cleanly.
“They’re
sending a signal to everybody — that this is for real,” said Michael
Dunne, president of Dunne Automotive, a Hong Kong-based consultancy on
China’s clean car market. “This shows their emissions standards have
teeth.”
The
Chinese government has already become the world’s biggest supporter of
electric cars, offering automakers numerous incentives for producing
so-called new energy vehicles. Those incentives are set to decrease by
2020, to be replaced by quotas for the number of clean cars automakers
must sell. That has spurred global automakers to pick up the pace in their shift toward battery-powered cars.
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| An assembly line at the FAW-Volkswagen plant in Chengdu, China. The country produced 28 million vehicles in 2016. Credit Goh Chai Hin/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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contrast, the United States is considering relaxing tailpipe emissions
standards and very nearly killed off a tax credit for electric vehicles
during its latest tax overhaul.
The
fact that Chinese automakers like the state-run giant Dongfeng Motor
Corporation did not appear to be spared “shows that the government is
not playing favorites in trying to meet their goals,” said Bruce M.
Belzowski, managing director of the Automotive Futures group at the
University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute.
The
Chinese government had long held back from aggressive emissions
standards to allow its own automakers to catch up with the latest clean
car technology. But that is changing, with the government setting
increasingly stringent tailpipe rules.
The
latest development “is a testimony to how quickly their own automakers
have evolved,” Mr. Dunne said. “They’re saying: We’re ready to play this
game.”
Foreign
automakers were still tallying the effect of the suspension on Tuesday.
Volkswagen, General Motors, Honda and other foreign automakers in China
referred queries on specific numbers to their Asia offices. Rebecca
Kiehne of BMW, which runs the BMW Brilliance joint venture in China,
said the company was not yet prepared to comment.
Han
Tjan, a spokesman for Daimler, said production would not be affected at
its Beijing Benz joint venture with the Chinese car manufacturer BAIC
Motor Corporation. The only car covered by the suspension was a high-end
E-Class model the venture has not manufactured since 2016, he said.
The
United States regulates cars by model years, and also approves various
versions of each model. Each version may no longer be sold in the new
car market if it was built to meet a previous model year’s regulations
and the regulations are different for the new model year.
By
contrast, China relies on a system of assigning a number to each
version of a model. When an automaker tweaks a car’s design to improve
its appeal or improve its regulatory compliance, whether annually or at
some other interval, the new version receives a new number. China
deregistered 553 of these numbers effective Dec. 31.
Global
automakers will have no choice but to meet the increasingly stringent
government policies in China, said Michelle Krebs, an analyst at the
AutoTrader Group.
“The simple fact that China is the biggest market means automakers will be accommodating,” she said.
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