Brussels, 29/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - Transport & Environment (T&E), which campaigns for smarter and greener transport in Europe, published a report on Monday 28 September which reveals the considerable differences between the test and real-life levels of CO2 emissions measured for models of German and French cars. It calls for further probes into defeat devices in CO2 tests.
“New cars, including the Mercedes A, C and E class, BMW 5 series and Peugeot 308, are now swallowing around 50% more fuel than their lab test results”, states T&E in a press release. It says that such a difference “has grown so wide that it cannot be explained through known factors including test manipulations”, such as using special lubricants to help the car run more smoothly, altering the sensitivity of the measuring devices during testing or reducing aerodynamic drag.
Adopting a zero tolerance stance in the Volkswagen scandal which revealed the tests for polluting gases were being manipulated (see EUROPE 11396), Internal Market and Industry Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska met the new Volkswagen president Herbert Diess on Tuesday 29 September. Over lunch on Thursday, EU competitiveness ministers will discuss this explosive issue.
According to the figures put forward by T&E, differences have grown from 8% on average in 2001 to 40% in 2014. Given this, the organisation is calling for tests to detect manipulation or defeat devices in laboratory CO2 testing to be extended.
The revelations on the practices of German car maker Volkswagen (see EUROPE 11394) only relate to measurements of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. Existing tests measures pollutants, the Commission says, but not CO2 which, in small doses, “are not directly harmful to our health, but cause climate change”.
At the present time, then, European law does not impose any maximum level per vehicle for CO2 emissions. Regulations 443/2009 and 510/2011 establish performance standards for carbon emissions for private cars (95g/km by 2021) and light vans (147g/km by 2021) but these are not limits.
The automobile manufacturers' organisation, ACEA, also acknowledges shortcomings in this area. “The current test cycle was designed in the 1980s and deployed from the 1990s, and so does not account for instance for many new technologies in today's cars that have a strong effect on fuel consumption.”
“If defeat devices were used to influence test CO2 emissions, it is likely the relative size of their impact would be lower than for pollutant emissions”, such as NOx, says the Commission. It points out that test procedures will change with the adoption of a worldwide harmonised test procedure for private cars and light utility vehicles (World Light Vehicles Test Procedure - WLTP) due to come about in 2016.
This is a project supported by ACEA, certain that the WLTP will be much more comprehensive than current lab-based testing (NEDC) because it will include high-speed tests with acceleration and braking that more closely resemble real-world driving, as well as closer monitoring of vehicle conditioning and measuring conditions. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)