EU Member States approve EC proposals for 'real-world' air pollution emissions test procedures
Wed 20 May 2015
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EU Member States have approved proposals from the European Commission to introduce 'real world' driving air pollution emissions test procedures for motor vehicles. The new test regulations are expected to come into force from September 2017.
The proposal was voted in “with clear support from Member States” in the EU’s Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles “with two minor technical amendments” a Commission spokeswoman said (reported in Air Quality News).
The Real Driving Emission (RDE) test procedure has been designed to assess vehicles’ compliance with emissions regulations, as it has been shown that current laboratory testing of vehicle exhaust emissions is increasingly underestimating emissions levels from cars on the road.
Regulatory emission limits are currently assessed on a standardised New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) lab test. The new RDE procedure has been developed in technical groups composed of experts from the Commission, Member States and industry, and the precise emissions limits in the tests and from when they apply will be decided later this year.
But while environmental groups welcomed the adoption of the new procedure, the European motor industry said the RDE test regulation was “very incomplete” and did not provide enough time for vehicle manufacturers to adapt to the “very significant hardware changes to future vehicles” that would be needed under the new testing procedure.
The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) urged the Commission to agree to a two-step date framework to “allow the industry a proper lead-in time to apply the complex RDE regulation”.
It also said that yesterday’s decision was “by no means the end of the discussion” and that it was working with the Commission and other stakeholders on the development of a new RDE procedure as it agreed a better test was needed.
Erik Jonnaert, secretary general of ACEA said: “ACEA calls on the Commission to urgently deliver a complete proposal for Real Driving Emissions by June or July at the latest for a positive decision in the regulatory committee. We need to make more progress on clarifying all testing conditions to ensure a robust RDE regulation could commence from September 2017."
The Brussels-based NGO, Transport and Environment (T&E), welcomed the new regulatory procedures. T&E said the new RDE tests received strong support from German and the Netherlands but were opposed by the car industry which “unsuccessfully tried to weaken the new test rules”.
The organisation also said that the 80 milligram of nitrogen oxide per km limit agreed for diesel cars in 2007 should be met in full.
François Cuenot, air pollution officer at T&E, said: “T&E is delighted that the Commission and member states have taken this important step to tackle air pollution from diesel. Europe now needs to fully enforce the new rules from 2017 to bring an end to dirty diesels.”
The European Commission also plans to introduce a new test cycle for CO2 and fuel efficiency in 2017 – the World Light Duty Test Procedure (WLTP) – which T&E says would close vehicle-testing loopholes such as pre-charging the car battery; using unrealistic vehicle weight and rolling and aerodynamic resistance.
The Commission wants to introduce the more stringent standards by September 2017, but Reuters has reported an industry paper which says that carmakers ‘cannot envisage vehicle testing beginning before 1 January 2020’.
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