PARIS-France will form an independent commission to test cars pulled from the road to see if their emissions in real-world situations exceed legal limits, French Environment Minister Segolene Royal said on Thursday.
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Computers in its “TDI”-badged diesel cars on sale in the US have, it is alleged, been programmed to detect when the vehicle is being tested under laboratory conditions, and to alter the engine management software to reduce emissions”. If they have their way, the new European tests will not be random, will only be conducted in urban areas – despite the high levels of pollution produced by cars on motorways – and all test cars will be driven on known routes with trained drivers to minimise pollution.
“All manufacturers deliberately engineer their cars to do well in the test”, said Max Warburton, auto analyst at Bernstein, a brokerage. But have no doubt, it’s cheating and it directly affects the air we breathe.
Volkswagen chief executive Martin Winterkorn resigned over the scandal but insisted he was not aware of “any wrongdoing on my part”. VW later acknowledged that similar software exists in 11 million diesel cars worldwide and set aside 6.5 billion euros ($7.2 billion) to cover the costs of the scandal.
Once on the road, the cars produced nitrogen oxide pollutants at up to 40 times the legal standard.
“Volkswagen appear to have been caught red-handed, but it would seem highly likely that others have also played dubious games to pass emissions tests”.
According to Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator at the EPA, “using a “defeat device” in cars to evade clean-air standards is illegal and a threat to public health”. “The job of the engineer overseeing the test is ultimately dependent on the next contract from the carmaker”. Germany, France and Britain are among countries that have demanded investigations or launched their own.
However, it said “there is no evidence that this is an industry-wide issue”.
The European Commission, the 28-nation bloc’s regulatory arm, appealed for more caution in demanding changes to the bloc’s rules. In the wake of the Volkswagen revelations, some stress that the European testing system is different from the one in the United States, implying that it is better.
“We invite all member states – in addition to the ones who are already doing so – to carry out all the necessary investigations”.
“As part of this work they will re-run laboratory tests where necessary and compare them against real world driving emissions”.
The Commission has proposed new legislation on tightening up its vehicle testing regime to produce results more in line with real driving conditions, which it says is the responsibility of member states to enforce.
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Eikhout, the Greens’ environmental policy leader, said it had been “painful for the EU” to watch US regulators seize the initiative on emissions test manipulation.
