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 

European Union to stamp out laboratory fuel figures.

European Union regulators are preparing draft legislation that will require vehicle fuel use to be tested on roads rather than in laboratories, looking to close loopholes that allow carmakers to exaggerate fuel-saving and emissions credentials.

Already starting Sept. 1, slightly tougher EU testing standards will be enforced, in line with a global push for accuracy. More stringent standards are likely to be opposed by automakers.

EU research published last year showed that lab techniques, such as taping up car doors and windows and driving on an unrealistically smooth surface, explained around a third of a recorded drop in average EU CO2 emissions, linked to reduced fuel consumption.

An EU official, talking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to journalists, said a proposal on "a new real-world testing method" was expected by the year-end. This would need to be endorsed by EU member states.

Other officials also said a proposal was expected over the coming months.

The Commission, the EU executive, says nitrogen oxide (NOX) emissions, linked to lung disease and hundreds of thousands of early deaths, have been miscalculated to a still-greater extent than CO2 levels.

"In the real world we have seen that NOX emissions are higher than indicated by the test, up to a factor 4 or 5 and exceptionally more," one EU official said.

No one from the European Commission was available for official comment, although the Commission has previously made clear its wish to tighten the testing regime.

A policy document published last year said "real-world" NOX emissions were roughly five times the EU limit, adding that had a major impact on pollution and generated "negative publicity and reputational damage for vehicle manufacturers."

Under the testing regime from Sept. 1, diesel models, which have been particularly blamed for NOX emissions, should emit no more than 0.08 gram (80 milligrams) of NOX per kilometer.

Environmental groups, independent researchers and the Commission say even in the new regime, loopholes mean such emissions will be higher.

The old tests, obsolete at the end of August, are based on a 0.180 g/km limit as part of a reduction from 0.5 g/km over 15 years.

Industry plan

The car industry has acknowledged the tests are flawed, but argues the Commission needs to be realistic. VDA, the lobby for the German car industry, said it was working on its own real-world testing proposal, which it would put before the Commission.

Already, the industry says, it has a major challenge to adapt to a law that the European Union agreed earlier this year, which enforces the world's toughest limits on carbon dioxide.

And it says it is too soon to set a 2025 standard on car CO2 emissions, which the Commission has also said it is working on, with a view to a policy announcement this year.

"Further targets should not be set prematurely for the period after 2021," VDA said in a statement. It said it was vital "industrial policy and climate protection targets have equal priority".

If the carmakers have reservations, some testers embrace change. Vehicle tester TUV Nord said it has been involved in Commission debate on the real-world tests, which will need member state approval under a fast-track EU process to become law.

Johnannes Berg, head of TUV Nord's Brussels office, told Reuters "real driving emission" tests would provide valuable data on fuel use and emissions.

REPORT HERE