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The gross emissions for the Australian vehicle fleet are forecast from estimates of population growth, vehicle ownership and vehicle in-service performance. These estimates are coupled with sensitivity analyses, to emissions deterioration and on-road performance and the impact of alternative fuels. It is concluded that more data on precontrol and high mileage controlled vehicles is needed to remove uncertainties in the projections. The results indicate that existing vehicle emission control standards will continue to give beneficial reductions in hydrocarbon emission levels through to 1995 and present levels will not be exceeded this century. Ambient ozone trends have fallen and are qualatatively in accord with reducing vehicle emissions.

A survey of the on-road petrol consumption of Australian passenger cars provided data which has been analysed for effects on fuel consumption caused by features such as transmission type, vehicle inertia class, engine size, air conditioning presence and vehicle location. Results show that cars with automatic transmissions consistently have higher petrol consumption than manuals for all inertia classes - 15% higher in city conditions and 11% higher in highway conditions. There is also a penalty for automatic transmissions at most engine sizes, although the penalty is relatively larger for smaller engine capacities. Presence of air conditioning was found to increase petrol consumption by 13.5% on average, but the data did not allow the impact of frequency of use to be determined. Coastal driving conditions resulted in petrol consumption being 9.4% higher than for inland conditions, and cars driven in winter had 4.4% greater fuel consumption than cars driven in summer.