For five years, it did.
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Calls for reviews of carmakers rang out in Germany, Italy and France, where Finance Minister Michel Sapin called for a continent-wide investigation, even if he suggested there was “no particular reason” to suspect any French companies of any wrongdoing. “This cynical chicanery must end”, Green environment spokesman Bas Eickhout said. “It’s a fine line between flexibilities and really breaking the law”. This is partly down to the way they are designed, failing adequately to represent real-world driving conditions. “The job of the engineer overseeing the test is ultimately dependent on the next contract from the carmaker”. Pressured by ever-tightening limits on carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide (NOx) and particulate emissions, they tune engines to perform best on the regulator’s bench.
“We all know that our cars use more fuel than in the test cycle and people are losing patience”. If anything, he added, “the risk of manufacturers playing games to hit the standards has probably increased in recent years”.
It might have been the Americans who first caught Volkswagen fitting dodgy software to its cars, but it’s actually British air which is much more liable to be seriously polluted by diesel carmakers gaming their pollution control tests.
Volkswagen AG admitted it built a system to undermine tests in the U.S. Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn is apologising nearly daily as he fights for his job.
“The United Kingdom automotive industry understands the concerns consumers may have following the actions of one manufacturer in regard to emissions testing and the subsequent decision to recall a large number of its cars”.
Michael Jacobs, senior adviser to the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate and its New Climate Economy project, said the case showed the need for tougher regulation.
“You have a big conflict of interest because the manufacturers are their customers”, said François Cuenot, a policy officer with Brussels-based Transport & Environment. “I was struck by the lack of independent testing”.
But software cheats are hard to root out. The agreement on this package, in addition to the already adopted RDE test procedures, it was felt will enable the European Union to have ambitious and robust real driving emissions testing scheme in place.
For its part, Germany faces resistance to any toughening of the test regime from its powerful motor industry.
The European Commission said it was up to national governments to carry out investigations and that it was too early to see whether European-level surveillance was necessary.
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“The Commission is offering to facilitate the exchange of information between member states”. If under-reporting of emissions is found to be prevelant in Europe, it could result in significantly higher environmental impacts than in the US.
