Consumption of gasoline & diesel oil by road vehicles AP-5

Total consumption of gasoline and diesel oil by all categories of road vehicles i.e. passenger vehicles, light duty vehicles, trucks, lorries, buses and motorcycles, must be recorded on an annual basis. The unit of measurement is Kt of gasoline and diesel oil per year.

Chapter 4: Changing consumption patterns; Chapter 9: Protection of the atmosphere, section B: Promoting sustainable development, items 1: Energy development, efficiency and consumption and 2: Transportation.

Currently, there are no conventions or agreements referring specifically to the monitoring and/or regulation of fuel consumption for transportation purposes. However, calls for energy efficiency improvements have been made, as for example the energy protocol of Lisbon (1994).

The road transportation sector is one of the major contributors of emissions of air pollutants in the atmosphere, such as NOx, NMVOC (combustion and fugitive emissions), CO and other compounds. The main purpose of this indicator is to identify and monitor fuel efficiency levels of all road vehicle categories.

In the last few years, it has become apparent that present consumption patterns can not be sustained in the long term. Recently, the automobile industry in collaboration with local governments - under a series of (voluntary) agreements - has taken a number of steps towards the improvement of fuel efficiency of all new road vehicles in the market. Furthermore, fuel switching is also currently being promoted with the use of liquefied petroleum gas and natural gas as alternative fuels for buses and/or passenger vehicles.

The current rate of usage of both gasoline and diesel oil by road vehicles imposes an additional demand on oil resources. Therefore, this indicator can be related to indicators of the Resource Depletion policy field that refer to the extraction of mineral resources and their use as a fuel (RD-7).

The EU is currently seeking to establish voluntary agreements with the automobile industry for further improvements in the fuel efficiency of new passenger vehicles, aiming towards the production of the 5l/100km car.

The quantity of petroleum products consumed for road transportation is directly related to the vehicle ownership rate and gives an indication of the driving habits as well as the economic evolution for any country. As an observation, it can be noted that public transport means are used to a larger extend in the developing than in the developed countries around the world.

Total amounts of gasoline and diesel oil used for road transportation are readily available from local as well as regional and international organisations (e.g. IEA, EUROSTAT). These fuel quantities have to be disaggregated into specific amounts for each vehicle category. This can be achieved by considering the composition of the vehicles fleet (categories must be identified by age and technology used) and specific consumption rates. Further information must also be selected referring to driving patterns and specifically to the mileage for the transportation of both persons and goods within the boundaries of the country. Agreed detailed methodologies (e.g. the COPERT programme, part of the CORINAIR software) already exist for such a disaggregation process.

The level of detail required for the mileage and/or the composition of the fleet might not be readily available for various vehicle categories. In these cases the allocation of gasoline and diesel oil can be completed by assuming default mean values either from literature or from studies for countries of comparable conditions.