When you buy a new car today you of course check out the efficiency credentials, but are always aware that they do not reflect reality. Buyers (and those who advise them) have learnt that the discrepancy between what is claimed and what is real is usually constant and have therefor adapted, but it’s far from being called normal and the practice of being deceitful about these claims is detrimental to the end user, not the company.
Companies actually profit from these legal loopholes, as Reuters calls them, and you can imagine they will be fighting the EU’s initiative to make the manufacturers blurt out the actual figures, instead of these phony ones that are an integral part of their marketing schemes.
The numbers are not accurate for a variety of reasons, most of which are intentional. The fact that most testing is done in labs is one factor that causes the issue, and even when they do take the cars out to see how efficient they are, all sorts of practices from taping up seams in the body, to pumping up the tires excessively are used to yet again cheat the system.
The EU is now bent on putting a stop to this (finally). Through the European Comission (EC), they want to force the manufacturer to change their practices for more accurate results.
It’s not even planet-warming CO2 that’s the main problem, apparently, because it’s being kept in check – what we should be looking out for is nitrogen oxide (NOX), a known carcinogen.
The source quotes an unnamed source from within the EU administration: “In the real world we have seen that NOX emissions are higher than indicated by the test, up to a factor 4 or 5 and exceptionally more” – that’s scary, if proven true…
The first step being taken by the EU through the EC is being enforced as of September 1. It’s specifically designed to limit the amount of NOX (diesel) engines (in particular) are known to emit – they want to drop the maximum allowed threshold from 0.180 g/km to 0.080 g/km.
Let the moaning of the giants commence!