Carmakers in the European Union will soon face tougher emissions tests for diesel vehicles.
Following the Volkswagen emissions scandal, EU member states yesterday agreed to use tests that more closely mirror real road conditions to measure diesel cars’ emissions. The EU Commission says laboratory tests do not accurately reflect the amount of air pollution emitted during real driving conditions. The EU still needs to approve the deal.
Emissions from European cars are on average four times the regulated NOx limit when measured in real-world driving, and CO2 is on average 31 percent over the limit, says Nick Molden, CEO of Emissions Analytics.
If approved by the European Parliament, the new emissions rules will be phased in over a period of four years.
In the first phase, car manufacturers will be allowed to exceed more than twice (2.1) the EU emissions limits until September 2017 and new vehicles will have until 2019.
The second phase will allow new models to exceed emissions limits by 1.5 times until 2020, and 2021 for new vehicles.
In the US, the EPA late last month announced it was cracking down on car emissions testing. The agency EPA sent a letter to vehicle manufacturers notifying them that the agency is adding to its confirmatory testing additional evaluations designed to look for potential defeat devices.
Photo Credit: tailpipe emissions via Shutterstock
