New ICCT report shows gap between reported and actual fuel economy higher than ever
Thu 02 October 2014
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An international study based on data from over half a million private and company vehicles across Europe shows that the gap between official fuel-economy test figures and what drivers are achieving on the road, has reached more than 30 per cent. According to the ICCT, the report's authors, this means that motorists are spending an average of €450 per year more on fuel than if the gap were closed.
The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), an independent research organisation prepared the report jointly with the Netherlands’ Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), and Germany’s Institut für Energie- und Umweltforschung Heidelberg (IFEU).
The findings were revealed as the European Commission prepares to adopt an improved test procedure that aims to produce more representative vehicle test results.
Dr. Peter Mock, Managing Director of ICCT Europe said: “All data sources confirm that the gap between sales-brochure figures and the real world continues to grow.
"Two years ago the gap was still around 25 per cent. Now it has increased to 31 per cent for private cars, and even higher for company cars.”
The analysis draws on data from a number of different sources: the user websites spritmonitor.de (Germany) and honestjohn.co.uk (United Kingdom), the leasing companies Travelcard (Netherlands) and LeasePlan (Germany), the car and consumer magazines AUTO BILD (Germany), auto motor sport (Germany), WhatCar? (United Kingdom) and the car club TCS (Switzerland).
ICCT says that the increasing gap in official versus real world vehicle efficiency more than halves the official CO2 reductions reported during the last ten years, making it more challenging to meet the EU’s climate change mitigation objectives.
It also adds that the growing gap causes significant losses of tax revenues for governments. This is because vehicle taxes are based on laboratory test results instead of real-world data. For the Netherlands alone, the loss in tax revenues could exceed €3.4 billion per year, according to the ICCT estimate.
When looking at individual vehicle models, the ICCT researchers said that their findings reveal a common pattern: When a new vehicle model generation is introduced, the gap suddenly increases from one year to another. For cars that were introduced after 2009, the gap, on average, increases by 60 per cent with every model change or major facelift.
The researchers see in this a strong indication that changes in consumer behavior cannot explain the growing gap. Instead, it is likely that manufacturers are optimizing their vehicles more and more for the official test cycle instead of the real driving needs of the customers.
LowCVP comment: The actual fuel economy (so called ‘real world’) achieved by drivers is influenced by a great many parameters, significantly by the drivers themselves and vehicle operational conditions, however current legislative test data has increasingly come under scrutiny and across the LowCVP is one of the key issues members look to improve. In areas such as buses and HGVs where no whole vehicle legislative procedures exist, LowCVP partners have developed robust test cycles to better represent the operational activity. Moving forward incorporation of the 'real world' efficiency of the whole fuel chain from well-to-wheel (including items such as chargers and energy delivery methods) must be considered as well as the tailpipe or on vehicle ‘real world’ efficiency.
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