Manipulating vehicle emissions: state of play after Dieselgate
In the 2010s, it was found that some vehicle manufacturers were using illegal defeat devices, meaning that measurements of vehicle emissions made under regulated laboratory testing conditions were inaccurate. The issue came to the attention of the public during the Dieselgate scandal in 2015.
An investigation by the European Parliament revealed that the situation was caused by a combination of shortcomings in emissions testing procedures and failure to enforce the relevant laws. With the aim of ending the use of defeat devices, the European Commission, as a first step, proposed the introduction of the real driving emissions test at type approval.
Since 2016, vehicle manufacturers have also been obliged to declare any deactivation/modulation of the emissions control system, referred to as an auxiliary emissions strategy, that may take place outside the regulated conditions (driving conditions, temperature, altitude) of the real driving emissions test.
The Commission and the Joint Research Centre, as part of their market surveillance duties, have been closely monitoring the enforcement of these new rules adopted in the aftermath of Dieselgate to limit the risk of defeat devices being used. No evidence of the use of a defeat device has been found since 2020.
FRANZETTI Jacopo;
BONNEL Pierre;
GRUENING Carsten;
CLAIROTTE Michael;
TUTUIANU Monica;
FERRARESE Christian;
LOOS Robert;
MANARA Dario;
VALVERDE MORALES Victor;
MELAS Anastasios;
2023-10-06
European Commission
JRC134529
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC134529,
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