The Prius has become the first car to meet Japan’s new 2015 Fuel Economy Standards, with testing under the new JC08 test cycle.
In December 2006, Japan revised its existing fuel economy standards—which are weight-based—upwards and increased the number of weight bins from nine to sixteen. The JC08 test cycle—which is longer, has higher average and maximum speeds, and requires more aggressive acceleration than the older 10-15 cycle—is due to be introduced in 2010 and will apply to meeting the 2015 standards.
According to the Japanese government, JC08 will increase the stringency of the testing by about 9%, making the new 2015 standards even more exacting compared to the existing standards, for which the 10-15 cycle is used.
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