Fuel Economy of Passenger Cars in the Global South: A case of two steps forward, one step back as fuel economy improvements are reduced by increasing car power and weight
This report looks at fuel economy assessments for passenger cars carried out in 109 countries. Of these, 64 developing and transitional countries were supported by UNEP to carry out fuel economy baseline studies, with some of these countries also assisted to develop fuel economy policies. An additional 45 countries included in the analysis have their fuel economy data either publicly available or available through the IEA, a GFEI partner – see Annex 1 for the full list of the countries analysed. The report is a first attempt at assessing the fuel economy in the Global South and has been carried out mainly through the financial support of the European Commission, FIA Foundation and UNEP.
The report reviews cumulatively a total of 30 million light-duty vehicles, from 68 developing and transitional countries that were analysed from 2010 to 2019 from across different regions (64 countries supported by UNEP and an additional 4 countries supported by other GFEI partners). The remaining countries were included in the analysis for comparative reasons. A key finding from the analysis is that while the highest fuel economy progress was in high-income countries, the improvement is stagnating. In contrast, the rate of improvement in the Global South is intensifying. However, the fuel economy improvement has not fully translated into its potential benefits due to increased car weight, size and power, i.e., a case of two steps forward, one step back. Increased car weight, size and power together are a big step back for internal combustion engine vehicles, but higher efficiencies in the Global South and an accelerating transition to electric vehicles are two bold steps forward.
