South Korea to introduce new fuel efficiency system starting next year

A more conservative system for measuring the fuel efficiency of cars will be introduced by the government starting next year, according to South Korea’s Ministry of Knowledge Economy. The new system will apply to all passenger cars and 3.5-ton or smaller trucks newly registered from next year and to existing vehicles starting in 2013. Fuel economy labels on cars rolled out from next year will reflect fuel efficiency recorded both under highway and city driving conditions. The new system will use the U.S. 5-cycle test, which includes a highway driving test, a cold temperature operation test, a high acceleration/quick acceleration test, an air conditioning test, in addition to a city driving test, to better approximate actual fuel economy performance. Fuel economy levels, measured in five grades, will be revised so that the threshold for Grade 1, which is for cars that can run 15 kilometers or more on one liter of fuel, is raised to 16 kilometers or more. Under the new system, Grade 1 cars will account for only 7% of all vehicles produced in the country, down from the current 30%. The same rules on fuel economy will be applied to electric cars. (November 23, 2011)