EU experts agree Real Driving Emissions approach to start in 2017
Wed 28 October 2015
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National experts in the European Commission's Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles (TCMV) have reached a compromise agreement on new conformity factor limits on nitrogen oxides (NOx) emitted from passenger cars, with full implementation for all new cars delayed until 2019.
The Commission stated that given the limitations in assessing the real world emissions of diesel cars currently on the market in the short-term, Member States agreed that manufacturers must reduce the discrepancy between the legal limit that is tested in laboratory conditions and the value produced under the new Real Driving Emissions (RDE) procedure, due to be binding from September 2017, when the car is driven by a real driver on a real road in two steps:
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in a first step, car manufacturers will have to bring down the discrepancy to a conformity factor of maximum 2.1 (110%) for new models by September 2017 (for new vehicles by September 2019);
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in a second step, this discrepancy will be brought down to a factor of 1.5 (50%), taking account of technical margins of error, by January 2020 for all new models (by January 2021 for all new vehicles).
The proposed RDE test procedure is designed to better reflect actual driving on the road compared to the current laboratory tests, which have been shown to undervalue the levels of pollutants emitted from exhausts.
The Laboratory test cycle is changing in 2017 to a much more representative cycle, giving policy makers and consumers greater confidence in the environmental performance of cars.
EU Industry Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska defended the outcome of the meeting, pointing out that this is still a "significant reduction" compared to the current discrepancy between laboratory and real-world conditions that is currently uncontrolled (400% on average). Edie reported that according to EU sources, the Netherlands was the only country to oppose the proposals, which came after heavy lobbying from the car industry and EU countries including the UK, Germany, France and Spain.
The day before the TCMV's agreement, the European Parliament in Strasbourg had passed a resolution calling for a full and transparent investigation into the Volkswagen diesel scandal, (with the European Commission due to report back in March 2016) which included a recommendation to consider whether to establish an EU-level surveillance authority, while welcoming investigations into vehicle emissions tests in individual Member States.
The next stage is that the agreement will go into three-way negotiations with the European Commission and Ministers for the Environment so that a final deal can be signed in the new year.
Green NGOs and some politicians have condemned the decision. Brussels-based environmental NGO Transport & Environment's Clean Vehicles Manager, Greg Archer said: “Citizens will wonder why their governments would rather help carmakers that cheat emissions tests than give them clean air to breathe."
The LowCVP commented that: “it is critical to get agreement in place to drive the real world assessment of emissions, The success we have seen from the Heavy Duty Vehicle market (which has its own conformity factors) clearly shows that the imposition of these new tests will deliver the step change in air quality emissions needed and start to rebuild confidence in the information industry provides to consumers.”
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