The Handbook of Emission Factors for Road Transport

The standard for road transport emission calculations

The Handbook Emission Factors for Road Transport (HBEFA) provides emission factors for all current vehicle categories (PC, LDV, HGV, urban buses, coaches and motor cycles), each divided into different categories, for a wide variety of traffic situations. Emission factors for all regulated and the most important non-regulated pollutants as well as fuel/energy consumption and CO2 are included (see Methodology).

HBEFA is a standard data source for emission calculations in numerous studies and other applications (see Use cases). It is the product of a common effort by funding agencies and development partners in six countries (see Contact).

Coordination and application development by INFRAS

Jacek Dylag

Latest News

New HBEFA website

14.9.2023

We are pleased to present the new HBEFA website! The old website has done its duty for almost two decades, but is now replaced due to technological developments. The new website gives us the opportunity to present information around HBEFA in a fresh look.

The order and support processes for the HBEFA application will remain largely the same for the moment as with the old website: Orders can still be placed using an order form, the INFRAS staff will process all orders and support requests personally as so far, payments are done by invoice.

The only change is that the login area, from which program and other files could be downloaded in the old website, is replaced by a Sharepoint repository. In order to access and download these files, users will receive personal access links by e-mail instead of the login data (user name/password) sent out so far.

Detailed instructions on the new order and download process can be found here.

Questions and comments regarding the new website can be addressed to INFRAS as always.

Announcement

Planned updates and schedule for HBEFA 5.1

15.3.2023

In several meetings between summer 2022 and spring 2023, the HBEFA workgroup has decided on the updates in the next "major" HBEFA Version 5.1. These will include:

  • Complete update of hot emission factors based on new measurement data
  • Complete update of mileage and temperature correction functions
  • Inclusion of estimated Euro 7/VII emission factors
  • Complete update of cold start emission factors, including new cold start emission factors for HDV
  • Higher differentiation of HDV with alternative drivetrains (same as for diesel HDV - so far, alternative drivetrains were more aggregated)
  • Inclusion of tampered HGV in fleet compositions
  • Differentiation of non-exhaust emission factors by processes (brake, tyre, road abrasion and resuspension) and by HBEFA subsegments
  • Moped and L-category emission factors in the same methodology as other vehicles (instead of simplified approach used so far)
  • Complete update of country activity data and reference scenarios
  • Publication of guidelines for the application of traffic situations
  • More user-friendly HBEFA application migrated to a new software platform (a Python-based server-client solution)

The tentative time schedule foresees the publication of HBEFA 5.1 in mid-2025.

Announcement

In HBEFA 4.2, an incorrect "charging scenario" is selected by default

20.4.2022

In the HBEFA 4.2 version from February 2022, an incorrect "charging scenario" is selected by default, which results in charging losses for electric vehicles not being considered.
Please activate the correct setting in the application by selecting menu Info > Electric vehicles > Energy losses > Charging losses and clicking on the "Default" charging scenario (i.e. the only visible scenario).
The installers and database files available in the download area (accessible with each user's personal download link) are up-to-date; therefore with new installations/downloads you do not need to modify this setting.
Please excuse the inconvenience!

Model imperfections

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The newest methodology articles for you.

HBEFA Documentation

24.2.22

HBEFA 4.2

HBEFA 4.2 Update Documentation

Documentation of updates with Version 4.2

INFRAS, IVT TU Graz, ifeu, IFSSTAR, ADEME, IVL

Benedikt Notter, Brian Cox, Stefan Hausberger, Claus Matzer, Konstantin Weller, Martin Dippold, Nicolas Politschnig, Silke Lipp, Michel Allekotte, Wolfram Knörr, Michel André, Laurent Gagnepain, Cecilia Hult, Martin Jerksjö

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Report

12.6.24

HBEFA 4.2

Pollutant emissions from road transport in Switzerland, 1990–2060

Update of previous studies on road transport emissions (air pollutants and greenhouse gases) in Switzerland, covering the time period 1990-2060, modelled using HBEFA 4.2.

Swiss Federal Office for the Environment, INFRAS

Benedikt Notter, Brian Cox, Cornelia Graf, Victoria Tapia-Dean

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Report

24.2.24

HBEFA 4.2

GHG and air pollutant emissions of transport in the Canton of Lucerne, 2022 (in German)

This study quantifies transport emissions on one hand with regard to monitoring and controlling of climate and energy measures, and on the other hand for the cantonal spatial air pollutant inventory.

Bau-, Umwelt- und Wirtschaftsdepartement des Kantons Luzern, INFRAS

Benedikt Notter, Brian Cox

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Use Cases of the Handbook

Our Software is used in many projects. Here are some examples.

TREMOD - Transport Emission Model

TREMOD maps motorised traffic in Germany with regard to its traffic and mileage, energy consumption and the associated climate gas and air pollutant emissions for the period 1960 to 2018 and in a trend scenario up to 2050.

Visit Project

IMMIS

Air quality model to support clean air plans

Visit Website
More USe Cases