Abstract. Air pollution is particularly severe in developing megacities, such as Beijing, where vehicles equipped with modern gasoline-direct-injection (GDI) engines are becoming one of major sources of the pollution. This study presents the characteristics of individual particles emitted by a GDI vehicle and their ageing in a smog chamber under the Beijing urban environment, as part of the Atmospheric Pollution & Human Health (APHH) research programme. Using transmission electron microscopy, we identified the particles emitted from a commercial GDI-engine vehicle running under various conditions, namely cold-start, hot-start, hot stabilized running, idle, and acceleration states. Our results showed that most of the particles were organic, soot, and Ca-rich ones, with small quantities of S-rich and metal-containing particles. In terms of particle size, the particles exhibited a bimodal distribution in number vs size, with one mode at 800–900 nm and the other at 140–240 nm. The numbers of organic particles emitted under hot-start and hot stabilized states were higher than those emitted under other conditions. The number of soot particles was higher under cold-start and acceleration states. Under the idle state, the proportion of Ca-rich particles was highest, although their absolute number was low. In addition to quantifying the types of particles emitted by the engine, we studied the ageing of the particles during 3.5 h of photochemical oxidation in an environmental chamber under the Beijing urban environment. Ageing transformed soot particles into core–shell structures, coated by secondary organic species, while the content of sulfur in Ca-rich and organic particles increased. Overall, the majority of particles from GDI-engine vehicles were organic and soot particles with submicron or nanometric size. The particles were highly reactive; they reacted in the atmosphere and changed their morphology and composition within hours via catalysed acidification that involved gaseous pollutants at high pollution levels in Beijing.Highlights. GDI-engine vehicles emitted a large amount of both primary and secondary organic aerosol (SOA). Higher numbers of organic particles were emitted under hot stabilized running and hot-start states. Sulfate and secondary organic aerosol formed on the surface of primary particles after ageing. Particles aged rapidly by catalysed acidification under high pollution levels in Beijing.