The role of the vehicle's internal combustion engine type in the environmental external costs of road transport

Abstract

Road transport generates negative externalities including air pollution, congestion, accidents, noise and climate change linked to Greenhouse Gas emissions (GHG). In the current paper, the role of vehicle's internal combustion (IC) engine type in the environmental external costs of road transport has been highlighted such that the potential air pollutants and GHG emissions of the EURO IV Gasoline passenger cars and EURO IV Diesel passenger cars have been compared to each other in 1 km of a theoretical urban road and Highway. The results showed that, compared to Gasoline passenger car, the external cost (€ in 2010 prices) associated with air pollution and GHG emissions has been increased in Diesel passenger car by 78.65 % and 48.75 % in 1km of Highway and Urban road respectively. The results suggest imposing different tax rates (as an internalizing tool) for different vehicle classes since they would considerably produce different amount of externalities at least in the case of air pollution and GHG emissions. Moreover, the results implied the fact that not just the different IC engines had the influence on environmental externalities but also road type had a considerable impact on the externalities especially in the case of the externalities associated with NOx emissions.