Abstract:

From a development impact standpoint, the nature of a country’s motor vehicle stock and how it grows affects three key and tangible outcomes. First, the quality of the motor vehicle stock affects road safety outcomes that is, the number of people killed or seriously injured in motor vehicle crashes. The characteristics of vehicles and their fitness or roadworthiness can affect fatality and serious injury outcomes. Second, the quality of the motor vehicle fleet affects air quality, particularly in cities. Motor vehicles are a key source of harmful air pollution, including carbon monoxide (CO), fine particulates (PM2.5), sulfur oxides (SOx), and ozone precursors (oxides of nitrogen and various hydrocarbons), and the amount of these pollutants they emit is directly related to how the vehicle was built and how well it is maintained. Finally, the profile of the vehicle fleet what is the size and weight of vehicles in the fleet, how big are their engines, what kind of power control technology do they use, and how did their manufacturers engineer the technology of the vehicle to balance power with efficiency affects the (fossil) fuel consumption of the vehicle stock as a whole, and, consequently, the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions profile of the road transport sector.