Starting November 1, all new cars, buses, cleaning and rubbish vehicles, mail delivery vehicles and urban construction vehicles used in the city must meet a more stringent emissions standard, the Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau said on Thursday.

Those failing to meet the new standard, equivalent to the highest European emissions standard, will be banned from being sold and denied license plate registration.

City officials said the quality of petrol and diesel used in vehicles also effects emissions, even in vehicles that meet the new standard. Therefore they will also implement new standards for the fuels before November 1.

Shanghai is the nation's second city to adopt the "national IV standard" for vehicle emissions. Beijing put it in place before the Olympic Games last year. The deadline for a nationwide adoption of the standard is 2011.

"We brought the adoption forward in the city in order to create a cleaner environment for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo," said Xi Ailing, an official from Shanghai's Environmental Protection Bureau. "The new standard is 30 to 50 percent tougher than the previous one."

Vehicle exhaust is the main cause of air pollution in the city's downtown areas.

The bureau also said all new vehicles have to be fitted with emissions detectors to give drivers information about their vehicle's emissions.

Local government departments will carry out emission tests after November.

Local automobile producers such as Shanghai Volkswagen and Shanghai General Motors say they have prepared for the new standard and all vehicles they produced last year already conform to it.

"I am not sure how many vehicles with national III standard are in our warehouse, but we will stop selling them after November 1," said Li Zheng°?hui, public relations director of Shanghai General Motors, yesterday.

(Shanghai Daily January 9, 2009)