Guangdong province upgraded their emissions standards to the National V standard for light vehicles in the capital city Guangzhou and other eight adjacent cities on March 1.

The provincial Department of Environmental Protection announced on Feb 15 that it will apply the upgraded standard in the Pearl River Delta, formed by Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Huizhou, Jiangmen andZhaoqing, and the transition period from the previous standard ended in February.

From March 1, the nine cities will no longer register plates for light vehicles built according to the National IV standard, and will also cease to register National IV heavy duty vehicles from July.

The National V standard requires sulfur content in fuel to be no more than 10 parts per million (ppm), one-fifth of the National IV's 50ppm.

Guangdong province started to use the National IV standard in August 2013. Beijing Municipal authorities applied the National V standard in September 2013, followed by Shanghai in April 2014.