PSA Group to produce the REAL world fuel figures for its products as the Emissions Scandal continues to hit brands.

The plethora of recent reports on emissions testing has underlined the importance of compliance procedures and their proper application. In this context, the Chairman of the Managing Board of PSA Peugeot Citroën asked the Group's engineering teams to carry out verifications in this area and make recommendations for improvement.

The Group conducted an in-depth review of its situation with regards to emissions and fuel efficiency.

Regarding emissions, PSA confirms that its vehicles have never been fitted with any software or device that detects emissions testing and triggers a pollution treatment system, including for nitrous oxide (NOx), that is inactive in normal driving conditions. The Group stresses that its vehicles are compliant and that 4,300 vehicles were selected at random off its production lines in 2014 to verify compliance with type approval.

PSA is the first carmaker to have extended “BlueHDi” Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) technology across all its diesel Euro6 passenger vehicles. This exhaust treatment system, for which PSA holds around 100 patents, is recognized by numerous publications as being the most effective NOx treatment technology[1]. 

PSA’s experience in this area and the investments it has already made to develop this technology put the Group on track to meet the demands of the new WLTP standards, set to be introduced in 2017.  

In the same vein, PSA invented the particulate filter 11 years before it became a legal requirement for all carmakers with the introduction of the Euro 5 standard in January 2011.  For information, in the first half of 2015, sales of diesel vehicles accounted for 60.3% of PSA's sales in Europe and 41.9% worldwide.

Regarding fuel efficiency, PSA emphasizes its leadership in the field, which is underpinned by its recent technological advances such as the EB PureTech gasoline engine (voted engine of the year in 2015 in its category), Blue HDi diesel technology, high-performance automatic transmissions, and lighter platforms. 

The current European approval test NEDC[2], which dates from 1992, is widely recognized as not reflecting real-world driving. Like any laboratory test, it gives rise to optimizations, including at PSA, which the regulators are aware of but which have been criticized by independent bodies and other observers. 

These optimizations, including unequal electrical energy balance (battery charge levels, alternator use, etc.), will no longer be accepted by the new test (WLTP[3]) currently under discussion at the European level. PSA stresses that it fully supports the introduction in 2017 of this new standard (WLTP and RDE[4]), which more accurately represents real-world conditions.

Committed to maintaining its customers’ trust, PSA Peugeot Citroën takes the initiative to:

• Publish real-world fuel economy figures for its main vehicles as soon as possible, with the process overseen by an independent body;
• Adopt technical measures to anticipate the future WLTP procedure, starting with implementing the “zero” electrical energy balance for type approvals on any new vehicle/engine.

 

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[1] Source: The International Council on Clean Transport  Report – September 2015

[2] New European Driving Cycle

[3] Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Procedure  

[4] Real Driving Emissions