TESTS carried out by the European car manufacturers’ association, ACEA, have confirmed what we already knew.
Its new data provides evidence that latest-generation diesel cars emit low pollutant emissions. The data was measured in real-driving conditions by the drivers of the various national type approval authorities.
Some 270 new types of diesel cars type-approved against the latest Euro 6d-TEMP standard were introduced on the European market over the past year.
The tests proved that all of them cars performed well below the NOx threshold of the real driving emissions (RDE) test, which applies to all new car types since September 2017.
Most of them were also below the stricter NOx threshold that will be mandatory from January 2020.
RDE measures key pollutants, such as NOx and particles, emitted by cars while driven on public roads over a wide range of conditions.
Each of the 270 RDE-compliant diesel vehicle types represents a whole ‘family’ of similar cars of differing variants, so a multitude of low-emitting diesel cars are now available on the market.
The German automobile club, ADAC, estimates that there are more than 1,200 different RDE-compliant cars available – and their availability is increasing rapidly.
Erik Jonnaert, ACEA Secretary General, said: “These new findings prove that modern diesel cars, supported by fleet renewal policies and combined with alternative powertrains, will play a strong role in helping cities move towards compliance with air quality targets.
“In parallel, diesel vehicles will continue to remain important for reducing CO2 emissions in the short and medium term, even though all manufacturers are expanding their offer of electrically-chargeable cars.”
Jonnaert: “Auto makers have made major investments to quickly deliver these massive reductions in NOx emissions. It is important that we stop demonising diesel technology as a whole. Instead, we need to differentiate between the old diesel fleet and the latest generation of vehicles.”
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