Carmakers celebrate emissions drop, but is it all a smokescreen?

Average carbon emissions from passenger cars in Europe have fallen by 49g/km since 1995, a drop of 31 per cent. Those figures are from the European Environment Agency and are being touted by the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) as a victory for the motor industry.

“Thanks to huge efforts by European automobile manufacturers and billions of euros worth of investment in R&D, Europe’s passenger cars and light commercial vehicles are the cleanest in the world,” stated Erik Jonnaert, Secretary General of the ACEA. “It should be noted that the legislation sets targets which become effective from one day to the next. Obviously, manufacturers have to start the process of reaching the targets well in advance. This means that, by the nature of the legislation, a certain degree of ‘over-achievement’ is necessary on route to meeting the targets.”

The ACEA claims that the most cost-effective (for which read most affordable) measures to cut emissions have already been taken and that further advances will require higher technology and therefore greater investment – and greater cost to the consumer. That is potentially a warning shot across the bows of various environmental pressure groups who claim that the car industry is actually obfuscating its figures.

One of those groups is Transport and Environment, which countered the claims coming from ACEA, saying that the carmakers' numbers are something of a fudge. According to T&E the official fuel consumption and emissions test still allows carmakers to, effectively, cheat the numbers by making sure that the test is carried out with a lighter-than-standard car running non-standard engine parts. The group claims that the official figures can be as much as 25 per cent better than can be achieved on the road. T&E's figures claim that the average official fuel consumption figure of 5.0-litres per 100km actually equates to around 6.25-litres per 100km on the road, bumping up annual fuel bills to the tune of around €350.

Greg Archer, clean vehicles manager at T&E, said: "Fuel efficiency standards for vehicles are Europe's single most effective policy to drive down CO2 emissions, but are being undermined by an obsolete test. The test procedures are a Swiss cheese, full of loopholes, that carmakers exploit to exaggerate improvements in fuel economy and emissions. Europe's current fuel-efficiency and emissions testing regime is not fit for purpose. It was developed more than 40 years ago and now bears little relation to real-world driving conditions and technologies. This is why around half of the 'improvements' in carbon emissions between 2007 and 2011 have not been delivered on the road."

Archer concluded: “EU Member States must support the Commission in quickly introducing new tests to stop carmakers misleading their customers and cheating the regulations.”