Carmakers can exploit loopholes in the EU’s new CO2 emissions targets to push sales of fake plug-in hybrid cars over EVs with no tailpipe emissions, T&E has warned. The law credits manufacturers for selling EVs but leaves room for gaming. This could allow carmakers to supply half of all the ´zero and low-emission’ cars needed to comply with stricter CO2 limits with fake ‘electric’ cars.
A massive cartel involving five leading German carmakers has been alleged, and, if true, the early indications are that it could result in the highest antitrust fines in EU history – totalling more than €5 billion. Preliminary investigations by the European Commission have concluded that German companies colluded to delay the development of clean emissions technology. T&E says that, if proven, the findings should lead to more than just fines against the guilty companies.
The new Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP), designed to improve car CO2 emissions testing in the laboratory, does not bring credible results and on its own will not stop carmaker manipulation of tests, a new report by Transport & Environment (T&E) shows. The report exposes the difficulties for independent testers when checking CO2 emissions from cars as key data remains secret.
The report shows that the CO2 emissions gap between the independently performed WLTP and NEDC tests is small, and suggests the new WLTP test procedure is likely not sufficient to reduce or close the gap between official and real-world CO2 emissions. The report also stresses the lack of transparency about vehicle data, which complicates the analysis of independent tests and makes possible cheating harder to detect.
The new car CO2 emissions test is producing unreliable results making it unfit for setting vehicle taxes at the moment, new data analysed by Transport & Environment (T&E) shows. This supports the European Commission’s evidence last year that carmakers are manipulating the new WLTP test to make their emissions look worse until 2021 and thus make CO2 reduction targets in 2025 easier to comply with. Governments should hold back on basing taxes on the new test and instead prepare a more comprehensive overhaul of vehicle taxation that accelerates the uptake of electric cars, T&E said.[1]
This paper has been prepared by T&E in response to the consultation from HM Treasury on the review into the impact of the Worldwide harmonised Light vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP) on vehicle excise duty and company car tax.
After five rounds and 27 long hours of negotiations, the EU agreed a new car CO2 deal that will cut new car emissions by 15% in 2025 and 37.5% in 2030. This is good news, especially considering where we started.
The EU’s air quality laws are failing. That is the conclusion of two reports, one by the EU’s Court of Auditors into ambient air quality standards and monitoring, the other by T&E that shows the number of polluting diesel vehicles is growing, and that even new cars that pass emissions tests in real driving conditions are pumping out dangerous levels of pollutants.
Carmakers are manipulating the results of a new test for CO2 emissions, evidence uncovered by the European Commission indicates. The new lab-based WLTP test was supposed to fix the testing problems that in the past allowed manufacturers to cheat EU emissions targets. But Commission documents indicate the industry is manipulating the new test results to inflate the CO2/fuel economy results of its vehicles. This will reduce the stringency of the EU’s proposed 2025 CO2 targets by more than half.
The biggest failure of the current regulation to reduce CO2 emissions from new cars and vans has been the inability to deliver emissions reductions on the road. Whilst new car CO2 emissions measured using the obsolete laboratory test (NEDC) have fallen by 31% since 2000, on the road the reduction is just 10%. The gap between test and real-world performance has leapt from 9% in 2000 to 42% in 2017. Had the gap remained constant there would have been 264 Mt CO2eq less cumulative emissions by 2017. The additional fuel burned to produce these emissions cost drivers an extra €150 billion EU-wide.
