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ICCT: Unrealistic CO2 emissions tests

September 25, 2015

The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) has said that in the EU the gap between official vehicle CO2 emissions and real-world results continues to grow. It claims there's no real improvement in sight.

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Exhaust pipe
Image: picture-alliance / dpa

A fresh ICCT report out Friday said it was concerned at a rapidly growing gap in the EU between vehicle CO2 emissions measured in the lab and emissions levels found in on-road tests.

"For an average consumer, the gap now translates into additional fuel expenses on the order of 450 euros ($501) per year," the research council said on its website, adding that the discrepancy might also lead to significant losses of tax revenue and a misallocation of public funds as vehicle taxation schemes and incentives programs for low-carbon cars were based on official C02 values.

The ICCT report identified a number of reasons for the gap which it said had grown from just 8 percent in 2001 to 38 percent in 2014.

Conditions differ widely

"Flexibilities in the type-approval procedure allow for unrealistically low driving resistances during laboratory testing," it stated.

It stressed that lab tests also failed to take into consideration auxiliary devices such as air conditioning and entertainment systems, which consumed energy during real-world driving and thus contributed to the gap.

The key implication of the study is the urgent need for improved test procedures. But the ICCT warned that a new type-approval scheme to be implemented across the EU in 2017 (WLTP for Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicle Test Procedure) would not close the existing gap on its own. It said frequent on-road tests would have to be carried out to get more reliable results.

hg/tko (AFP, Reuters)