Implementation of national VI emission standard was postponed from December 31, 2018 to July 1, 2019 in Shenzhen, Human Settlements and Environment Commission of Shenzhen Municipality announced on December 25, 2018. In detail, light spark-ignition engine cars without license plates currently (i.e. newly registered in Shenzhen or newly transferred from other places via necessary procedures) will meet the national VI emission standard starting from July 1, 2019. The new emission standard is forecast to decrease carbon monoxide pollutants in Shenzhen by 2 873 tons per year.

 ‍

Many cities issued plans to implement national VI emission standard. However, the number of vehicle models that meet national VI standard was just 554 (around 12% of models reaching national V standard) by the end of November 2018. Models with stable supply are even fewer, and many brands cannot be supplied until the end of June 2019 or later. The Economic, Trade and Information Commission of Shenzhen Municipality held a symposium with 12 key automobile sales corporations and the used-car industry association.

Related parties in the symposium argued that implementing the national VI emission standard too early may: 1) make citizens face a dilemma – they don’t want to give up their purchase quota, but they can hardly buy a qualified car; 2) impact growth of total retail sales of consumer goods as automobile is the largest industry in Shenzhen’s retail field; 3) be bad for the used-car market, which is significant for Shenzhen to propel vehicles to meet stricter emission standard, reduce emission of motor vehicle exhaust, etc. Hence, the Economic, Trade and Information Commission of Shenzhen Municipality suggested postponing the implementation of the national VI emission standard.