Brussels, 23/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - Tests to measure road vehicle emissions under real driving conditions (RDE) were the focus of a public hearing organised by the European Parliament's environment committee in Brussels on Tuesday 23 February (see EUROPE 11489).
Experts and MEPs stressed the crucial role these tests would play in reducing the differences between the results of polluting emissions from road vehicles measured under laboratory conditions and on the road emissions. They urged that the tests, including the 3rd and 4th RDE packages which are due to be presented in 2016, be brought in quickly.
The European car industry undertook to put them into operation “despite the significant financial challenge this presents: investment of €120 million per manufacturer” and gave assurances that the technology is available to reduce emissions in line with a compliance factor of 1.1 for the EURO VI standard. MEPs and consumer organisations took them at their word. They demanded, however, like Françoise Grossetête (EPP, France), “guarantees of the reliability of the tests”, precise and reliable information for consumers, and a genuine will on the part of manufacturers to abide by European legislation and to produce clean vehicles.
Alois Krasenbrink, Head of the Sustainable Transport Unit at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) said that, as early as 2012, the JRC had flagged up that diesel posed problems with regard to nitrogen oxides (NOx). In 2013-2014, the portable system road testing procedure showed that petrol was below emissions ceilings, even on the road, while there was a problem with diesel.
For the forthcoming two RDE packages, the JRC will concentrate on testing procedures for cold engines, adapting data to take hybrid cars into account and market monitoring trials. Bas Eickhout MEP (Greens/EFA, Netherlands) was critical of the large number of exemptions in the second RDE package: “Starting from cold is not included nor are temperatures below minus three degrees”. He also asked what lessons could be learned from the United States' Environment Protection Agency (EPA) which “carries out tests of cars that are in service, sometimes conducting random checks, which is not the case in Europe”. Krasenbrink replied that the Commission proposal that seeks to revise the authorisation system in Europe will enhance the role of the Commission, “including the JRC which will be able to take over responsibility for inspections”, and check type-approvals, compliance tests for vehicles in service and market monitoring tests (see EUROPE 11476). “We are a research establishment; we can distance ourselves from procedures to see if they have to be improved and bring us closer to the EPA level”.
In the United States, today, 15-20% of vehicles are tested. The Americans have a third complementary test, but do not give any indication of which it is. The effect of the unknown prevents the industry from preparing for it, observed Jürgen Resch, Director of Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), an organisation which is a member of the European Environmental Bureau.
As early as 2007, he had highlighted the way that pollution testing was cheated, a phenomenon that continued to grow without checks being carried out. “On 11 February 2011, we informed the German Transport Ministry about the Volkswagen Passat”, on which legal loopholes were being exploited to comply with the NOx limit values in force (EURO VI). “In the meantime, NO2 exceedances have been observed (Opel Zafira, Renault Espace, Class C Mercedes, for example) which can only be explained by manipulation.” He said that the Renault Espace prepared for cold engine testing performed poorly but, at operating temperature, the car no longer recognised that it was in test mode. “Mercedes has acknowledged that below a temperature of -10 degrees, emissions reduction systems cut out. This proves that it is premeditated”, he stated. He argued that, from 2017, the limit values set by EU legislation should be applied with no compliance factor and without any weakening of the 80 mg/km of NOx.
Dirk Bosteels, Executive Directive of the Association for Emissions Control by Catalyst (AECCV), responsible for tests on autocatalyst systems to monitor the emissions of light utility vehicles, said he had sold diesel particulate filters since 2000 then, from 2009, equipment meeting the EURO VI NOx reduction standards. He said he was happy to make his association's expertise available to the Parliament and to contribute to the debate on fine particles from direct injection engines because “we want sound legislation that will improve the quality of emissions from cars and vans”.
Erik Jonnaert, Secretary General of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) made the point that “innovation is always faster than the regulation that has to be updated”. If discrepancies have been noted between the results of emissions tests carried out in the laboratory and on the road, it is, he said, because the technology is obsolete. “Currently everyone carries out tests using their own methodology. RDE tests have to be adopted quickly along with a globally harmonised methodology for vans: the WLTP is the very latest in technology”, he went on to say.
“If manufacturers want consumers to buy more low emission vehicles then they will have to make sure the information is reliable! You have to abide by the spirit of the law rather than exploit legal loopholes to trick consumers”, retorted the representative of BEUC, the European consumers' organisation. Using the WLTP procedure, due to be put into operation by 2017 at the latest, RDE test will provide reliable information and the directive on the labelling of road vehicles will provide comparable information.
With regard to fuel consumption, there are differences of up to 40% between laboratory and on the road results, he regretted. BEUC has opened legal proceedings to secure compensation for Fiat Panda and Volkswagen Golf owners. On 15 March, European Consumers Day, it will hold an event on fuel consumption by cars and the measures taken to restore consumer confidence. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)