The field of vehicular exhaust emissions is experiencing wide-ranging and rapid changes. Air quality is very high on the political agenda and pressure remains to limit and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the road transport sector. In addition to limits being increasingly stringent, the list of parameters subject to legal limits are slowly expanding – and, most importantly, these limits must be met under a wide wide range of conditions. A range of strategies are available to overcome these difficulties, which was explored during the 5th International Exhaust Emissions Symposium (IEES) hosted at BOSMAL in May 2016. This paper reports and summarises the topics of the 5th IEES and attempts a synthesis on the current status of the field and what the coming years may hold for the automotive and fuel industries and other allied fields.