Vehicle Emissions - shocking claims

[brom]

Fascinating article on the BBC News Online today, relating to actual, real-world emissions from diesels and petrols . The article is waffly, and takes a long time to get to the point, but it's worth persevering - the results of tests run by one of the very few independent testing stations are eye-opening. One of the conclusions drawn is that older diesels may (in some cases), be cleaner than their much-vaunted Euro 6 successors. The link is:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/how_toxic_is_your_car_exhaust

 

It's also worth looking at the charts of test results for cars and light commercials produced by the independent testers, Emissions Analytics. The link to them is:

 

emissionsanalytics.com/equa-index/

 

Ironically, it seems that many of the cleanest vehicles are made by .... Volkswagen! Whereas the current most popular car, the Nissan Qashqai, with the 1.5dCi Renault engine, apparently produces, in real-life conditions 18 times the European limit of NoX. Shocking figures, if true, which expose the complexity, hypocrisy and bull..ht of modern life - should be compulsory reading for politicians.

 

Of course, Nissan and Renault point out that their vehicles all pass the relevant tests, which only makes it worse!

 

These figures obviously need corroboration, but it appears there are only a couple of companies which do this work in this country and, the article claims, they work with the car/LCV makers, so aren't prepared to divulge or discuss findings.

 

If what the BBC claims is true then, in my opinion, this is a scandal which exceeds 'Dieselgate'. So it will doubtless all be swept quietly under the carpet.

 

 

[Will86]

Its all rather like he food industry

 

Manipulated to suit sales

[Archiesgrandad]

I do remember that in the 70s colleagues who worked in the developement team at Longbridge were involved in exhaust emissions developement and were not happy about the movement towards catalytic converters because they felt that the best way forward would have been to continue work on lean burn engines, that produced less harmful emissions and used less fuel , but the catalyst lobby, with all the money from the platinum mining industry to support them, were able to influence the politicians who decided to follow this blind alley.

[Tracker]

I had a good friend who was also involved in lean burn technology, but at Ford, and he too had his job changed due to the impositioon of catalytic converters.

 

For too long the motor industry has suffered the imposition of political solutions to engineering problems and I don't see that changing anytime soon.

 

 

 

[peterjl]

Hi

 

I must admit I don’t see it as either a scandal or shocking. It’s just life.

 

The manufacturers are meeting the government guidelines. It’s the governments job to make sure the rules are correct. They have had plenty of time to amend the rules but not much happening as far as I can see so I wonder how accurate the media reporting is.

 

I find the whole hoohaa rather boring. I wonder how many people purchase vehicles based on emissions rather than value for money or how it looks?

 

Peter

[brom]

peterjl - 2017-10-22 6:52 PM

 

Hi

 

I must admit I don’t see it as either a scandal or shocking. It’s just life.

 

The manufacturers are meeting the government guidelines. It’s the governments job to make sure the rules are correct. They have had plenty of time to amend the rules but not much happening as far as I can see so I wonder how accurate the media reporting is.

 

I find the whole hoohaa rather boring. I wonder how many people purchase vehicles based on emissions rather than value for money or how it looks?

 

Peter

 

I feel that's a bit cynical.

 

I do agree, it's for government to set the rules, and for the manufacturers to push the boundaries, so as to maximise profits. Likewise, it's for the Press to ferret-out and expose the shortcomings of the current test regimes - and I think it is up to the public to push their governments to refine and tighten the rules.

 

Where I disagree is the attitude that it's boring and 'nowt to do wi' me'. If you had a relative who had died of lung disease possibly caused by particulate pollution, (no, I haven't either!), would you dismiss it as a 'hoohaa'? Society as a whole won't. We are likely to find every diesel tarred with the same brush and banned from vulnerable areas, and certainly there is an ill-informed campaign to scapegoat ALL modern diesels. Wouldn't it be better if we made such a fuss that the Government finally extracted its digit, concentrated on weeding out the truly filthy engines by real-world testing, and rewarding cleaner designs?

 

But I do agree this needs further research, as the results from one testing company may well not be definitive.