Characterizing the Economic and Environmental Benefits of LNG Heavy-Duty Trucks: A Case Study in Shenzhen, China

Heavy-duty trucks (HDTs) in road freight are a primary contributor of PM2.5 and NOX emissions in many cities. Shenzhen, a megacity of China, has already made great efforts to promote the green transport transition, including via the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) HDTs program, which may be the largest alternative fuel vehicle promotion program in the world. In order to fully understand the actual efficiency of such program, the economic and environmental impacts of LNG HDTs were analyzed in this study. The results revealed that, while the capital cost of LNG HDTs is higher than that of diesel HDTs, the aggregated cost during the entire operation period of LNG HDTs is 10% to 17% lower than that of diesel HDTs. By replacing existing diesel HDTs mode (including China-I to China-V) with LNG HDTs (100%), environmental impact analysis showed that PM2.5 and NOX emissions could be reduced by 96.7% and 73.2% in the city level, respectively. Moreover, the environmental benefits of using purely LNG HDTs versus just China-V diesel HDTs were also compared, which indicated that LNG substitution is superior to China-V, with a reduction of 20.9% for PM2.5 and 35.4% for NOX, respectively. Overall, the effectiveness of the promotion of LNG HDTs is notable in Shenzhen, and these findings could provide references for other cities to promote LNG HDTs and beyond.

The impact of taxation policies on the research and development of alternative fuel vehicle companies -- A case study of NIO Inc.

In the context of industrial transformation and green development, the strategic position of the alternative fuel vehicle industry has been continuously improved, and it has become a long-term key support object for China’s industrial policy. With the acceleration of the industrial development process, the market competition has intensified, and the phenomenon of insufficient enterprise research and development has gradually become serious. This paper uses the literature analysis method, the method of combining theory and practice, and the case analysis method. Take the alternative fuel vehicle emerging company NIO Inc. as a case to analyze the role of taxation policies in research and development (R&D) input and output, identify existing problems and make suggestions for improvement. This study can promote the development of China’s alternative fuel vehicle industry, adjust the relevant upstream and downstream industrial chains and the business structure of industry enterprises, and build an environmentally friendly society as soon as possible. It also has theoretical guiding significance for the overall construction and adjustment of China’s fiscal and taxation policies.

Alternative-Fuel-Vehicle Policy Interactions Increase U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The transportation sector is currently the largest contributor of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the United States, and light-duty vehicles produce the majority of transportation emissions. Federal standards for fleet-averaged vehicle GHG emission rates and their corresponding corporate average fuel economy standards cap GHG emissions of the US light-duty vehicle fleet. In addition, two key policies aim to encourage a future fleet transition to alternative fuel vehicle (AFV) technologies: (1) incentives that treat AFVs favorably in the federal GHG standard, and (2) state zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) policy, which mandates AFV sales in some states. While each of these AFV policies can encourage AFV adoption, we show that net GHG emissions increase when both policies are present simultaneously. Specifically, we estimate changes in life cycle GHG emissions and gasoline consumption, relative to a pure federal fleet GHG standard (without AFV incentives or mandates), resulting from the introduction of (1) AFV incentives in federal fleet GHG policy, (2) state ZEV mandates, and (3) the combination of the two. We find that under fairly general conditions the combined AFV policies produce higher GHG emissions than either policy alone. This result is a consequence of state mandates increasing AFV sales in the presence of federal incentives that relax the fleet GHG standard when AFVs are sold. Using AFV sales projections from the Energy Information Administration and the California Air Resources Board, we estimate that the combined policies produce an increase on the order of 100 million tons of CO2 emissions cumulatively for new passenger cars sold from 2012 through 2025 relative to a pure GHG standard. AFV incentives in the GHG standard conflate policy goals by encouraging AFV adoption at the cost of higher fleet GHG emissions, and they permit even higher fleet GHG emissions when other policies, such as the ZEV mandate, increase AFV adoption.