Video: Euro 7 and beyond

Our CEO & Founder, Nick Molden conducted a webinar on Euro 7 and beyond.

In this presentation, Nick discusses:

• Trends in air quality

• Policy context of Euro 7 and US regulation

• Principles of the EQUA Index test method

• New pollutants being measured: N2O, formaldehyde and speciated VOCs and SVOCs

• How real-world data collection is conducted

• Initial test results

• How EQUA Index database can be used for performance benchmarking.

WEBINAR REPLAY: RDE Surveillance and Compliance

Title: RDE Surveillance and Compliance - - Independent data to enhance competitiveness and manage risk

First Shown: Tuesday 28th April - 16:30 GMT / 17:30 CET / 12:30 EST / 08:30 PST

Running time: 30 minutes + Q&A up to maximum of further 30 minutes

Content Overview:

The relentless intensity of RDE certification diverts resources away from critical competitive benchmarking and off-cycle evaluations. In a challenging market, such investigations can become a luxury.

We have a solution.

Emissions Analytics' independent EQUA database provides a cost-effective tool for certification, powertrain and emissions teams to understand their market position, the real risks of non-compliance and see which vehicles are setting new standards for emissions control.

With over 2,000 vehicles tested to date and hundreds more lined up for 2020, EQUA is the world’s largest commercially available real-world emissions database, with a unique bank of PEMS & OBD data. Over the years it has become an integral tool for vehicle manufacturers in Europe and North America to gather benchmarking intelligence and support R&D activities at the click of a button.

Join our Founder & CEO, Nick Molden, as he covers:

• EQUA test process and methodology including cold-start, high load and hard acceleration

• Database size, scope and detail

• NEW – Technology supplier info including; engine, transmission, fuel injection, turbocharger

• Ammonia (NH3) measurement data, ahead of Euro 7

• European market update: WLTP, NOx and exceedance risk

• US market update: emissions performance and real-world CO2 trends

• Access to our data

Real Driving Emissions is a tough regulation, but also a risky one

Aggressive driving on average increases pollutant emissions by 35% in rural driving and by around five times on the motorway, according to testing of the latest passenger cars by Emissions Analytics on its EQUA Index programme.  Even higher “hotspots” have also been identified, where emissions at high speed can peak at more than ten times typical levels of nitrogen oxides (NOx) – the pollutant gas that was at the centre of the #dieselgate scandal.
 
The need to identify hotspots is becoming vital with the new Real Driving Emissions (RDE) regulations, which is a much tougher regulation of driving in normal conditions.  The consequence of this will be that a greater proportion of total emissions may be concentrated in a small number of more unusual or extreme events.  Unless those are well understood, the effect of the new regulations may be blunted.
 
The in-use surveillance requirements set out in the fourth package of RDE are aimed at monitoring vehicle compliance in all normal driving conditions, not just the cycle on which the vehicle was certified.  Broadly, a vehicle should pass any RDE test within its useful life, whenever and whoever conducts the test.  This is both a significant challenge for manufacturers, and brings with it risk as it is impossible a priori to guarantee compliance on all possible RDE tests.
 
To help quantify this risk, Emissions Analytics is launching a new evaluation programme that will quantify the risk of excessive emissions for each vehicle tested.  Currently, EQUA Index ratings (www.equaindex.com) are published to allow the performance of different vehicles to be compared on a standard, normal cycle.  This new programme leaves that rating unchanged, but puts the vehicle through an extended test designed to measure performance in more extreme and unusual driving conditions.  The variance between that, the standard EQUA Index and the regulated level will yield a rating for the risk of exceeding the regulated level.
 
The main factors considered are: 

• Higher speeds

• Higher and lower rates of acceleration

• Cold start emissions

• Emissions under regeneration of the diesel particulate filter.

Considering eight diesel cars certified to the new RDE standard (Euro 6d-temp), the effect of driving at speeds up to 160 kph can be shown in the chart below.

In all cases the NOx emissions on the standard cycle – with maximum speeds up to 110 kph – are within the regulated limit of 80 mg/km plus 2.1 times conformity factor, even though certification does not apply this to the motorway section separately.  In fact, many of the vehicles are comfortably below this limit.  Allowing the maximum speed to rise to 160 kph shows significant proportionate increases on all but one vehicle, with the average percentage increase across all eight vehicles being 552%.  All but two of the vehicles remain below the limit despite the increases; however, the worst two vehicles emitted around 650 mg/km.
 
For reference, under the RDE regulation, the vehicle’s velocity can be driven between 145 and 160 kph for up to 3% of the total motorway driving time.  The risk of compliance therefore comes from a vehicle that has a significant emissions uplift at 160 kph and is relatively close to the limit at more moderate speeds. 
 
Under cold start, vehicles 7 and 8 also showed an average increase in emissions of 160% compared to an average of 110% across the other vehicles. 
 
Putting this data together with performance in other parts of the test cycle, it is possible to derive ratings of the risk of excessive emissions on RDE and on RDE-like cycles but with more relaxed boundaries, as shown in the table below.

It is important to note that a red rating does not necessarily imply non-compliance but, rather, it identifies elevated risk of non-compliance using results from the Emissions Analytics’ test, which runs a cycle similar to RDE but that is not strictly compliant.

Considering Euro 6 diesels, whether RDE or prior, the effect of cold start is that NOx emissions are 2.8 times higher on average during the cold start phase compared to the whole warm start cycle.  During regeneration of the diesel particulate filter NOx emissions are on average 3.3 times higher than in mixed driving with no regeneration.  Therefore, the frequency and geographical location of these events can be critical to the overall real-world vehicle emissions.
  
These results are important for cities, manufacturers and regulators.  For cities, it is vital to know that the latest vehicles do not have emissions hotspots that could undermine their air quality targets.  For manufacturers, facing third-party RDE testing to check compliance, it is important to quantify the risk of high emissions being found in unusual driving conditions, where every scenario cannot practically be tested.  For regulators, it is important that RDE is seen to function well in order to draw a line under the failed regulation of the past.

Emissions Analytics will continue to test a wide range of the latest vehicles to publish comparable ratings between vehicles, but now with the added quantification of the risk of elevated emissions around the boundaries of normal driving.

Rethinking Scrappage For Addressing Vehicle Emissions

Scrappage schemes are controversial. In a 2011 academic paper* reviewing 26 studies assessing the outcomes of 18 scrappage schemes implemented around the world in 2008-11, the authors concluded that the emission effects of the schemes were ‘modest and occur within the short term.’ They also concluded that the cost-effectiveness of such schemes ‘is often quite poor.’
 
The reality of the 2008-9 scrappage schemes, however, was that governments in Europe, the US and Japan were tackling a liquidity gap by stimulating consumption and bolstering an ailing car industry. The mooted environmental benefits of accelerated fleet renewal were talked up by politicians but were not the main objective. This helps to explain why the efficiency of the schemes in mitigating Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions - CO2 dominating discussion at the time - was found to be poor value for the taxpayer and of marginal consequence to overall path reductions towards a low carbon economy.
 
Since 2008-9, the policy climate has changed significantly, with air quality emerging as a major concern. Several national governments have been sued by environmental groups for illegal levels of NOx in cities, and what was once a transport policy issue has become a matter of public health. With diesel bans looming in city centres, plus the advent of clean air zones, it’s no stunt to reimagine scrappage according to an emission-reduction imperative.
 
Data availability upon which to base an intelligent scrappage scheme has also improved.  Since 2011 Emissions Analytics has compiled the world’s largest database (the EQUA Index) of standardised real-world emissions tests, of over 2000 cars. The EQUA Index test measures not just CO2 emissions but nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and carbon monoxide (CO), as well as fuel efficiency.
 
Reimagining scrappage in light of air quality first requires accepting that the now discredited New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) test regime has produced counterintuitive outcomes, to the point where some of the newest cars are by no means the cleanest. This means that a poorly designed scrappage scheme could produce a worse outcome, measured in air quality, than doing nothing at all.
 
The EQUA Index results show that:

• Dirtiest Euro 6 diesels are 6-7 times worse than cleanest Euro 5

• Dirtiest Euro 6 diesels are up to 3 times worse than cleanest Euro 3/4

• Some 20-year-old cars are cleaner than some brand new cars

How one weights GHG emissions against NOx emissions is a matter of policy debate and public acceptance, but a plausible objective would be Pareto optimality, or the idea that addressing air quality should not be at the expense of GHG such as CO2. While research points towards life cycle or ‘well to wheel’ analysis of CO2 emissions, this is difficult to measure and for the sake of a near-term scrappage scheme probably lies in the future.
 
Beyond the well-observed conflict between efficiency, where diesel scores well compared to gasoline, and the point-of-use emissions, where gasoline is consistently cleaner with respect to certain emissions such as nitrogen dioxide, the point to make is that it is possible to target and scrap dirty cars without increasing CO2.
 
The EQUA Index test recently revealed that 11 Euro 6 diesel cars from four manufacturers merited an A+ rating, equivalent to 0.06 g/km NOx in the EQUA Index test, which compares with a limit 180% higher (0.168 g/km NOx) for the new RDE requirement that will prevail until January 2021. Such cars can be said to be genuinely clean by today’s standards, but were greatly outnumbered by highly polluting diesel models, 38 of which scored F, G or H, meaning that they exceeded the Euro 6 limit in respect of NOx by 6-15 times. By comparison, 105 gasoline and hybrid Euro 6 cars achieved the A+ rating, and only one gasoline model fell into the D category, the rest being C or higher.

In the graph above, the arrow labelled ‘Bad Trade’ travels from a Euro 4, 1.9-litre diesel Skoda Octavia, model year 2009, that scored E in the EQUA Index test, towards a Euro 6, 1.6 litre diesel Nissan Qashqai, model year 2016, that scored H in the EQUA Index test. The Skoda is cleaner than the Nissan in real-world testing, yet a scrappage scheme designed around vehicle age alone could result in the cleaner Skoda being scrapped for purchase of an equivalent, dirtier Nissan Qashqai. This would result in tailpipe emissions higher by a factor of more than five and therefore worse air quality. It would be a waste of tax payer money.
 
Conversely the ‘Good Trade’ arrow highlights that dirty older (and conceivably newer) vehicles could be scrapped for genuinely cleaner new vehicles. Currently, 87% of Euro 6 diesel cars are over the Euro 6 limit, as are all Euro 5 cars. If all these cars were replaced by Euro 6 cars actually performing to the Euro 6 diesel standard in real-world conditions, the net tailpipe emissions improvement measured in NOx would be around 88% from the Euro 5/6 fleet.  If real-world performance were only brought down to the Euro 5 diesel standard, the reduction in emissions would be 74%.  Even if performance were reduced to just Euro 3 levels, there would still be a 38% reduction.
 
Put another way, as most Euro 5 and 6 diesels emit over the limit, a large number of vehicles need to be “fixed” to address the air quality problem.  This inherently makes any scrappage scheme highly costly.  Therefore, a more stratified approach may be optimal, as shown in the chart above.  Emerging passenger car retrofit technology may deliver a 25% or more reduction in NOx; those vehicles with moderately high emissions could be tackled in that way.  A scrappage scheme could then be targeted on the dirtiest diesels (perhaps worse than the Euro 3 level in real-world).

A further potential ‘Bad Trade’ may be switching from a diesel car to a non-hybridised gasoline car.  The same vehicles viewed through the lens of CO2 emissions show that on average, gasoline vehicles are, like-for-like, a ratings class worse than diesels for absolute CO2 emissions. They also exhibit a greater disparity between NEDC measurements and actual emissions. For example, the 2017 Audi Q2 diesel, achieves A+ for air quality and C2 for CO2. The same power output gasoline equivalent model from the same year also achieves A+ for air quality, but a lower D4 for CO2. C means 150-175g/km CO2; D means 175-200 g/km, but the numbers 2 and 4 respectively show that the gasoline engine model is at greater variance from the officially claimed figures. This example highlights an element of the trade-off involved if tackling air quality results in a more gasoline-dominant fleet.
 
In summary, the right scrappage and retrofit schemes could incentivise consumers towards vehicles that are genuinely clean and genuinely efficient, taking into account not just NOx emissions, but also CO2 and particulates. This would contrast with the UK’s 2009 scheme that merely required customers to scrap their old car for any new vehicle. A stratified and discriminating scheme would require a more focussed replacement, resulting in better results both for air quality and climate change.
 
* Bert Van Wee, Gerard De Jong & Hans Nijland (2011) ‘Accelerating Car Scrappage: A Review of Research into the Environmental Impacts’, Transport Reviews, 31:5, 549-569, DOI: 10.1080/01441647.2011.564331

Electric vehicles now rated by EQUA Index – Tesla 3 result.

Electric vehicles have no tailpipe emissions – obviously.  They do have indirect emissions from upstream manufacturing, and in-use emissions from tyre and brake wear, but it is range and efficiency which are of direct practical importance to owners.
 
As range anxiety diminishes with larger batteries, the relative efficiency of EVs will become more important in choosing the best vehicle.  More challenging, for car buyers, is weighing the advantages and disadvantages of EVs against traditional powertrains, as they decide whether to switch.  As a result, Emissions Analytics has extended its EQUA Index programme to test these new powertrains in a comparable way, with our partners Motor Trend (www.motortrend.com/real-mpg).
 
Recently, we put the Tesla 3 through the standard EQUA Real Mpg fuel economy test in the California, which is the same test we put internal combustion engine vehicles and hybrids through. The Tesla performed well, achieving efficiency of 3.1 miles per kWh. While there is no ideal way to convert this to a miles-per-gallon equivalent, if the kWh are converted to gallons based on relative energy content, this makes 103.7 (US) mpg, 124.5 (Imperial) mpg or 2.27 litres per 100 km.

This was a good performance, but not best-in-class. The 2017 Chevrolet Bolt we tested achieved 122.2 US mpg and the 2017 Hyundai Ioniq EV reached an impressive 151.8 mpg.
 
This is significant because it shows that the electric vehicle market is not just dominated by one player, but there are now a number of rival vehicles, with varying performance – information the consumer should have when making a purchase decision.  Emissions Analytics’ EQUA Real Mpg data for the US market can be found at usa.equaindex.com, and the equivalent European data at www.equaindex.com. 

At the same time as these developments, behind the scenes, Emissions Analytics has initiated a process to formalise its methods and evolve it to be relevant for testing the latest vehicles, including European diesels under Real Driving Emissions and EVs. In November, the inaugural workshop of this "CEN" process was held in Brussels. CEN, or Comité Européen de Normalisation, is a framework for standardisation of products and techniques across the European Union.  After a period of open scrutiny and discussion, the testing methodology could become an official voluntary standard, for any organisation to use.
 
Emissions Analytics is undertaking this as part of its commitment to the recently-launched not-for-profit global alliance called “Allow Independent Road-testing” or AIR (www.allowair.org). As part of this, we want to open up our methodology to third parties to conduct consistent tests, in order to grow the global database of comparable results. 

AIR is a separate entity from Emissions Analytics and structured as an alliance allowing like-minded organisations to sign up to the principles of independent testing and labelling. Any organisation interested in finding out more about the objectives and opportunities for membership, should contact Massimo Fedeli at mdefeli@allowair.org.
 
The link between these two recent events is that the ever-growing complexity of car choices needs an accurate, fair, trustworthy standard for measuring efficiency and emissions. Consumer trust must be rebuilt and cities need good tools to meet the air quality goals.

Very cleanest cars revealed: new A+ rating from the EQUA Index

Emissions Analytics’ EQUA Index (www.equaindex.com) has been revealing the cleanest and most efficient cars since it launched in 2016.  Since then, technology and vehicle performance have improved to a point that a new class of even cleaner vehicles can now be revealed.

On 17 October, the Mayor of London, in collaboration with Emissions Analytics, launched an online Cleaner Vehicle Checker (www.london.gov.uk/cleaner-vehicle-checker) with a new EQUA Aq A+ rating for those vehicles with the very lowest emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx).  This identifies 105 Euro 6 petrols meeting this more stretching standard and 11 diesel engines from four manufacturers.

To achieve the A+ rating a vehicle must emit no more than 0.060 grams per kilometre of NOx across the real, on-road EQUA Index test, made up of equal proportions of urban, rural and motorway driving. This is 25% more stringent than the A rating of no more than 0.080 grams per kilometre.  It is also significantly tougher than emissions required under the new, official Real Driving Emissions (RDE) regulation, under which 0.168 g/km (180% higher) are allowed until 2021.

A recent study, conducted by Imperial College London on behalf of the campaign group Allow Independent Road-testing (AIR, www.allowair.org), concluded that RDE and the EQUA Index tests are broadly similar in how demanding they are on the vehicle.

The new A+ rating illustrates dramatically the challenge that diesel engines face, but also shows that they shouldn’t be automatically consigned to the history books. Not that many years ago, governments encouraged car buyers to opt for diesel cars in order to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.  However, the NOx emissions were much higher (often five times higher, and more than the petrol cars they replaced), and even the CO2 emissions were higher than the official figures suggested (often 40% or more adrift).

With the progress in standard “full” hybrid technology – ignoring for a moment plug-in hybrids – the newest models now delivers Mpg comparable with diesels. This in-turn means that on average CO2 as well as NOx emissions are lower too – the best of both worlds.

Does this spell the end for diesel passenger cars?  Maybe. The loss of confidence in the automotive industry combined with the political narrative, nationally and locally, may be hard to correct. Consider the new Volkswagen Passat 1.6 litre diesel, with an EQUA Aq rating of A+, an EQUA CO2 rating of B and EQUA Mpg of 52.6 mpg. Compared to the latest Hyundai Ioniq petrol hybrid with EQUA Aq of A+, EQUA CO2 of A and EQUA Mpg of 58.1 mpg.  The diesel has impressively low NOx emissions, but the hybrid is beating it on fuel economy and CO2 emissions.

So, the battle between diesels and hybrids is on.  Can diesels shrug off the legacy of those Euro 6 diesels still on the market with EQUA Aq H ratings (12 or more times the regulatory NOx limit)?  Does the current performance of hybrids obviate the need for alternative powertrains to meet urban air quality goals?  Whatever happens, the EQUA Index will be tracking through its independent, real-world test programme.

The EQUA Index data can be accessed for free at www.equaindex.com.  There are four ratings for each vehicle: EQUA Aq rating for NOx; EQUA CO2 for carbon dioxide; EQUA CO for carbon monoxide; and EQUA Mpg for fuel economy.  In publishing the EQUA Aq A+ ratings, the boundaries for categories B to H have not been changed.

EQUA Air Quality Index – Release

EQUA Air Quality Index – General QA

EQUA Air Quality Index – Technical QA

Daily Mail: Cars to get simple ‘eco ratings’ like fridges and washing machines to tackle diesel fears and pollution-linked deaths

On 29 March 2017, London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced that he would be introducing a system based on the EQUA Index data, to allow motorists to choose the least polluting vehicles.

Read the full account by Daily Mail motoring correspondent Ray Massey.

Emissions Analytics to power Clean Vehicle Checker for London and Paris

• London and Paris to use on-road emissions data to improve air quality

• Emissions Analytics’ data to help inform consumer decisions in both cities

• EQUA Index launched today in France

 In a drive to improve urban air quality, the cities of London and Paris will launch an on-road emissions scoring tool for residents, using Emissions Analytics’ data. The partnership was announced at C40 Air’volution in Paris today as Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and Paris Mayor, Anne Hidalgo, set out their joint plan to tackle poor air quality in both cities. Emissions Analytics has also launched its emissions database, the EQUA Index, in France today.

The Greater London Authority’s (GLA) online Clean Vehicle Checker will allow Londoners to identify the cleanest and worst-polluting new vehicles on sale. Launching in Autumn this year, the free-to-access tool will provide Londoners with on-road emissions data for nearly all new cars and vans. The Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, has committed to offering a similar scoring scheme.

The move to offer car buyers information on real-world emissions data comes as authorities try to address the consequences of the official emission testing system, which has historically underestimated true ‘on road’ emissions. Emissions Analytics data shows that some new cars produce more than 12 times the legal NOx limit in the real world. While the introduction of official Real Driving Emissions (RDE) tests will help to address this, it is not set to come into full force until 2021, and vehicle manufacturers will still be allowed to exceed limits by up to 50%.

Nick Molden, CEO and founder of Emissions Analytics, said: “Both the Mayors of London and Paris have identified that vehicle emissions in the real world are a major contributor to the current air quality issue. This validates the work of Emissions Analytics, which has been recording on-road vehicle emissions for six years. We are delighted that both cities will be using our data to help inform consumer decisions.”

Emissions Analytics’ EQUA Index, which provides free-to-access data on vehicles’ fuel consumption and NOx, CO2 and CO emissions, has also been launched today in France. The EQUA Index will allow Europe’s third-largest new car market to better understand the emissions that their vehicles produce in real-world driving conditions for free, by going to fr.equaindex.com.

Independently financed and implemented, the EQUA Index is designed to help end the confusion that many consumers face when trying to understand the complex subject of fuel economy and tailpipe emissions, with ratings openly published and freely available to all.

Developed by Emissions Analytics, the EQUA Index is totally independent of car manufactures, trade associations and government. The EQUA Index is a scientific undertaking, providing highly accurate information, obtained though standardised and repeatable testing conducted on real roads.

Notes to Editors

Nick Molden, CEO and founder of Emissions Analytics, is available for interview and comment on the issues relating to real-world fuel economy data and vehicle emissions.

Notes to Editors

About Emissions Analytics

Emissions Analytics is a specialist in real-world, on-road vehicle emissions measurement and analysis, covering the European Union and the United States.

Its capabilities cover the measurement of regulated pollutants, including CO, CO2, NO, NO2, NOx, total hydrocarbons and particulate matter, using officially certified Portable Emissions Measurement Systems (PEMS).

Operating since 2011, it has carried out PEMS tests on more than 1400 model variants of passenger car in addition to testing heavy goods vehicles, tractors, taxis, vans and buses. It is the unrivalled expert in the field of on-road emissions monitoring.

Its bespoke services include benchmark tests, product evaluation and real-world running costs and it offers subscription access to its database of test results, as well as confidential testing services for product development and evaluation.

As experts in vehicle emissions and fuel consumption, Emissions Analytics supports a range of commercial and publicly funded organisations. It is currently in partnership with Imperial College, London, studying urban emissions for transport planning and policy.

Emissions Analytics is willing to provide journalists with sample data for specific vehicles upon request.

 About the EQUA Index

The EQUA Index is designed to evaluate the performance of individual passenger cars across the European Union in terms of fuel economy and tailpipe emissions under real-world driving conditions.  The scheme will assess cars using objective performance criteria, recognising the best performers in emission levels through the ratings awarded.

The on-going programme will be separate from, and independent of, vehicle manufacturers’ certification tests. The results will be publicly available, with the aim of influencing policy development and implementation, allowing consumers to make informed purchase decisions and demonstrating the improvements that vehicle manufacturers are making in fuel efficiency.

A technical reference document on the methodology is available on request.

The EQUA Index is owned, funded and operated by Emissions Analytics, which retains all rights associated with the results and ratings.

For more information, please contact:

Alex Michaelides (Torque): 020 7952 1078, amichaelides@torqueagencygroup.com

Matt Sanger (Torque): 020 7950 1079,

The EQUA Mpg gap increases further in 2016

This year’s round up of EQUA fuel economy data shows a five percentage point increase in the gap between official and real-world mpg, reaching 29% in 2016.

Official mpg figures averaged 60.7mpg in the year, the highest we have seen since we started recording in 2011. This is an increase of 9% on 2015’s figures, which stood at 55.7mpg; however, real-world mpg reached just 42.3mpg. On a like-for-like basis, this represents a 3% increase on 2015.

Air conditioning

With air conditioning now widely available in cars, in 2016 Emissions Analytics updated all its mpg results to include the effect of air conditioning on fuel economy. Results are now expressed to reflect manually adjusted air conditioning (not automatic climate control) switched on at 50% of maximum throughout the test. This increases fuel consumption typically by 4%.

Incorporating the use of air conditioning, the gap between official mpg figures and real-world EQUA Index Mpg has risen to 29% on average, with the largest gaps well exceeding 40%. This increases to 75% below the official figures for hybrid vehicles that have not had their battery charged and are running purely on the ICE.

Can regulatory change reduce the gap?

From 1 September this year the World harmonised Light duty vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP) will be introduced to certify the carbon dioxide and fuel economy of cars. Work started on this around 2008 and was originally intended to be a worldwide certification standard. However, with the passing of significant time and the withdrawal of North America from the process, it has become less relevant.

It will still be an improvement on the existing type approval process, which incorporates the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC), largely due to the removal or restriction of loopholes in the procedure.  However, the test cycle itself is not much more representative of real-world driving, as it remains in the laboratory with no changes in elevation and still modest acceleration rates. Our prediction, also consistent with modelling from the International Council on Clean Transportation, is that the current mpg gap of 29% and the CO2 gap between official and real-world of around 40% will approximately halve. So, a significant gap will still remain.

Crucially, it has yet to be agreed when and in what way the WLTP results will be made available to consumers. In the meantime the EQUA Index is available for anyone wishing to find out the on-road fuel economy of both Euro 5 and Euro 6 vehicles.

Emissions Analytics’ new EQUA Carbon Dioxide Index reveals car manufacturers miss target by 39%

EQUA Mpg Index – a media round up

To find out how the press have been reporting the latest EQUA Index powered by Emissions Analytics click on the links below.

The Guardian

Auto World News

Energy Live

Telegraph

Times

Drive Time

VW Tiguan makes the grade in EQUA Air Quality Index while others flounder

Emissions Analytics launches EQUA Carbon Monoxide Index

Emissions Analytics is pleased to announce the launch of the EQUA CO Index. The second in the EQUA Index series, EQUA CO looks at whether carbon monoxide regulations are being achieved in real-world operation.

Potentially fatal for humans as well as damaging to the environment, carbon monoxide is generally considered a problem primarily confined to gasoline vehicles. Regulations distinguish between the fuel types, with diesels having a more stringent but, due to their technology, easier to achieve limit of 0.5g/km. Gasoline vehicles have to meet a more generous 1.0g/km limit which is typically achieved using a three-way catalyst. Therefore, the regulations are not technology neutral and allow gasoline vehicles to emit twice that of diesels and still be compliant.

In the same way that Emissions Analytics rates emissions of NOx from diesels, gasolines and hybrids with a single scale on the EQUA Aq Index, the EQUA CO Index awards a universal rating regardless of fuel type. Thus despite the regulations setting different boundaries, the EQUA CO Index allows comparisons between vehicles. The A++ to H ratings are set as follows:

Using these classes, a diesel car awarded an A to A++ meets the regulated level even in real-world driving, whereas a gasoline vehicle with a C to A++ meets the regulated levels for this fuel.

Of the 734 vehicles currently on the EQUA CO Index, 96% emit the regulated amount of CO or less. However, there are some interesting exceptions. Several Mercedes C-Class diesels are over 0.5g/km, out of a small number over the limit. Additionally, 8% of gasoline vehicles, that is 24 models tested by Emissions Analytics, do not meet the regulated limit, with one outlier being more than six times over. If the regulations were to change and gasolines had to achieve the same, stricter standard as diesels, the number of cars failing to reach this standard would increase to 20%. Of the hybrid vehicles tested, all achieve the regulated limit apart from the Mitsubishi Outlander which scored a D-rating when not running on its electric engine.

The vehicles tested by Emissions Analytics are all  run on our standard real-world cycle. The tests are conducted by a small pool of highly trained technicians and the vehicle and testing equipment is carefully prepared to make sure it is fully warmed up and in the manufacturers’ default settings.

The data shows that illegal levels of carbon monoxide are not as prevalent in real-world driving as excess NOx from diesels. However, given the toxicity of CO, this is a situation that needs to be monitored. This could become particularly relevant if there is a market shift away from diesel towards gasoline as a result of dieselgate and other emerging regulations and taxes. Emissions Analytics will continue to keep a watchful eye on on-road vehicle performance, checking it against official certification and publishing the results online on the Carbon Monoxide page at the EQUA Index site.

Subscriptions are available to the Emissions Analytics database. Contact us for details.

Downsized and supersized engines hit A grade in EQUA Air Quality Index

EQUA Air Quality Index – Release

EQUA Air Quality Index – General QA

New EQUA Index reveals true pollutant emissions for car buyers

With Mitsubishi Motors the latest manufacturer to admit to impropriety in its testing procedures, the need for impartial real-world data has never been greater. Today Emissions Analytics is launching the new EQUA Index rating scheme to help bring transparency in the first instance to the issue of air quality.

The EQUA Air Quality Index is based on the level of emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) in grams per kilometre emitted during our real-world tests. The Index aligns the boundaries between ratings values as much as possible with recognisable points. See below:

The EQUA Air Quality Index is intended to complement the forthcoming regulations for new vehicle certification, by monitoring vehicle performance when driven normally on roads; in effect keeping a watchful eye on the effectiveness of the new regulations.The problems with the existing test system, the NEDC, which have been the cause of so many of the issues covered by the media recently, are already being addressed by regulators in Europe. From 2017 the World Harmonised Light Duty Test Protocol (WLTP) will change the way CO2 is measured and Real Driving Emissions will address problems with NOx measurement.

The other great benefit of the EQUA Air Quality Index is to help car buyers. Designed to be clear and concise, the simple A to H rating allows manufacturers and retailers to show how different models compare in the showroom, whether diesel, petrol or hybrid. It is also ideal for car reviewers and publishers to include as new cars are reviewed. And because the scheme is independently financed and researched, consumers, companies and the wider automotive industry can have confidence in the impartiality of the data.

The EQUA Air Quality Index has been developed by Emissions Analytics in conjunction with a group of experts to guide, review the test and rating methodology, monitor the regulatory context, and provide input into the wider development of the index. The group includes:

• Professor Helen ApSimon – Air Pollution Studies, Imperial College London, UK

• Dr Adam Boies – Department of Engineering, The University of Cambridge, UK

• John German – Senior Fellow, The International Council on Clean Transportation, USA

• Dr Marc Stettler – Centre for Transport Studies, Imperial College London, UK

• Professor Martin Williams – Air Quality Scientist, King’s College London, UK

There are almost 450 vehicles on the EQUA Air Quality Index now, so why not have a look?