According to internal documents disclosed by the Transport & Environment (T&E) organisation on Wednesday 25 July, the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) has detected inflated CO2 emissions by car manufacturers as part of the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP).
The document, “CO2 regulation for cars/vans: Risk of inflated starting point for calculating the 2025 and 2030 targets” for the emissions detailing the first measures carried out as part of the WLTP for vehicles due for registration in 2020.
The authors explained that in the two current European rules, emissions standards have been established up to 2021 (95g of CO2/km) and are based on NEDC procedures that are 30 years old. A transition period towards the new WLTP procedures (in application since September 2017 – see EUROPE 11852) has been put into place. This consists of correlating NEDC and WLTP emissions values so that the requirement level can be compared.
Then the source of the problem comes to the fore. The post-2020, 2025 and 2030 emissions targets will be calculated as percentages (a 15% reduction) compared to the tests carried out on average in 2021 as part of the WLTP. According to the first data measured, the car manufacturers declared higher emission values in the WLTP, without having modified the values within the NEDC. The flaw arises because the WLTP tests include safeguards to avoid low emissions reports, but none against overvalued claims.
This manoeuvring could lead to lower targets being set out for 2025 and 2030. The authors of the study warn that “This would de facto reduce the ambition of the proposal”. According to the T&E calculations, this manipulation would enable the car manufacturers to reduce the 2025 targets by 57% and leave them more time to sell their diesel models and postpone the transition to electric cars.
Commission envisaged action
On 18 July, the Commissioner for the Internal Market and Industry, Elżbieta Bieńkowska, and the Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy, Miguel Arias Cañete, wrote to the Austrian Federal Minister for Sustainability and Tourism, the President of Parliament's environment and public health committee (ENVI) and the rapporteur on performance standards for car and utility vehicle emissions.
They are requesting that the starting point for calculating CO2 emissions in the future is on the basis of the values measured and not those declared in the negotiations on the regulation on performance standards currently being negotiated (see EUROPE 12042).
They also indicate that the Commission is considering amending the implementing acts on the current standards setting out correlation procedures between the NEDC and WLTP tests to guarantee greater transparency. The Commission has also warned that there is a possibility of amending the WLTP regulation in an effort to improve the follow up and checking of the data collected.
The car industry had until September 2017 to revise the CO2 emissions targets for 2025 and also proposed to also take into account the sales of electric vehicles (see EUROPE 11872).
To consult the study (in English) please see: https://bit.ly/2uQ3hIv. The letter from the two Commissioners is found at the following link : https://bit.ly/2uQ3hIv . (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)