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Australia Updates Fuel Consumption Labelling Requirements to Cover Electric Vehicles

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Nov 2010

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1 min read

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In September 2010, the Australian Government published an amendment to Australian Design Rule (ADR) 81/02 on the fuel consumption labelling of light vehicles to introduce new provisions for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.

ADR 81/02 applies to passenger cars and light goods vehicles with a GVW not exceeding 3500 kg. It requires that the fuel consumption, in litres per 100 km, and CO2 emissions, in grams per km, for such vehicles be determined in accordance with the requirements of UN ECE Regulation No. 101. Furthermore, it requires that each new passenger car and light goods vehicle have a "fuel consumption" label affixed to its windscreen showing these figures. The precise format and layout of this "fuel consumption" label is specified within ADR 81/02.

With the expected introduction of both pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles into the Australian market in the near future, this latest amendment to ADR 81/02 introduces new requirements to cater for such vehicles.

The amended version of ADR 81/02 requires that the electric range, in km, and the electrical energy consumption, in Wh/km, for pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles are determined in accordance with the requirements of UN ECE Regulation No. 101, and that these figures are included on a new "energy consumption" label. Pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles are required to be fitted with this new "energy consumption" label instead of the "fuel consumption" label.

The format and layout of this new "energy consumption" label is specified in this latest amendment to ADR 81/02 and contains fields for the following information:
  • Energy consumption (Wh/km).
  • Range (km).
  • Fuel consumption (L/100 km) – Combined test.
  • CO2 emissions (g/km) – Combined tests.
For plug-in hybrid vehicles, all fields must be completed, but for pure electric vehicles, only the first two fields need to be filled in.

Fitment of this new "energy consumption" label becomes mandatory for pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles manufactured on or after 1st March 2011.

Nick Bowyer