Real Driving Emissions
Der Spiegel recently measured the exhaust emissions of vehicles based on the Real Driving Emissions (RDE) and Euro 6 with the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) and the Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club e.V. (ADAC), and found that 22 out of the 32 models of 10 manufacturers they examined failed to pass the test.
The RDE is scheduled to be introduced in 2017 to take the place of the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) that is currently in effect in Europe. The biggest difference between the two is that the latter is based on indoor measurement whereas the former is based on the measurement of emissions on a road by the use of a vehicle equipped with a mobile measurement device.
At the test, Volvo exceeded the nitrogen oxide emission limit by a factor of 15 times, followed by Renault (nine times) and Hyundai Motor Company (seven times). BMW became the only manufacturer that completely passed the test. In fact, a number of automakers were found to be short of Euro 6 Standards as early as last year, when the ICCT conducted the first test of that kind and only one out of 15 models made it.
Under the circumstances, carmakers around the world are increasingly opposed to the timing of the introduction of the World Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP). Recently, they asked the European Commission to change the timing from Sept. 2017 to 2020 or later.
“Companies have discontinued the production of certain vehicle models and marked up the prices of cars by 2 million won to 5 million won [US$1,694 to $4,234] in order to cope with the Euro 6,” said an industry insider, adding, “Given the size of the investment that Euro 6 requires, they are likely to focus more on electric and hybrid vehicles than on diesel cars.”