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Clean air tax axe hovers over BIK bands

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28 May 2015

What is Real Driving Emission (RDE)?

  • These are tests where the vehicle is driven on real roads, under real world driving conditions with the vehicle’s exhaust emissions being measured by a portable emissions measurement system (PEMS) that is small and light enough to be fitted to the vehicle without it affecting the vehicle’s performance.

What is RDE trying to achieve?

  • The EC hopes that more accurate testing will force car manufacturers to meet Euro 6 in real-world environments to lower levels of deadly NOx emissions.

How this will affect you?

  • Manufacturers will have to invest heavily in new technology to offset RDE and this could be passed on to the consumer in higher vehicle price tags. Also if, or when, the use of PEMS is applied to CO2 emissions and fuel economy HMRC is bound to apply these figures which will push many existing models into higher BIK tax bands.

When does it happen?

  • Mandatory RDE comes into effect for all new cars by 2017

BUSINESS company car uses could be slapped with higher BIK penalties with the introduction of tougher emission testing of new vehicles.

For while Europe has agreed plans for on-the-road testing of deadly nitrogen oxides (NOx) to replace current controlled tests used by car manufacturers, the use of portable testing equipment could just as well be applied to challenge claimed fuel economy figures.

Several independent assessments of car manufacturer’s economy and emissions claims have revealed that the ‘laboratory’ testing used in the existing New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) have been wildly optimistic.

Along with the fuel figures, emissions of NOx can be massaged in controlled environments by manufacturers to meet the new stringent Euro 6 standards applied to all diesel engines.

Yet, HMRC has used existing fuel and CO2 figures to assess company car BIK tax bands and the proposed new real-world, or Real Driving Emission (RDE), tests are bound to reveal poorer than claimed figures placing an extra burden of tax on businesses and their company drivers.

But many clean air lobbyists are welcoming the approval of the European Commission’s proposals for real-world driving air pollution emission tests as the first step in ensuring a marked reduction in NOx emissions, claims Emissions Analytics.

From 2017, part of the type approval process for passenger cars in Europe will include a compulsory real-world test using a portable emissions measurement system (PEMS). For the first time, official tests will be conducted outside the laboratory to measure NOx levels emitted in real driving against the regulated limits.

“Our data on the very latest Euro 6 diesels shows an improvement on Euro 5 of 49%,” explains Nick Molden, CEO of Emissions Analytics. “We believe the manufacturers, anticipating this legislative change, have really stepped up their game and the results are encouraging, although still mixed.”

But for the company car tax payer, the situation looks dire as a report from the International Council on Clean Transportation in 2014 revealed the earliest Euro 6 diesels produced levels of NOx on average 7.1 times the legislated limits.

Recent Euro 6 diesels show marked improvements in NOx emissions but are still more than three times the legislated limit of 0.08g/km.

Emissions Analytics estimates that the average variance of all the Euro 6 diesel cars so far tested is 4.4 times the legislated limit.

Particularly worrying is the variance between model types, as manufacturers employ different approaches to reducing emissions.

The newly approved RDE test has been designed to tackle the long standing discrepancy between lab-based testing and real-world results.

Molden said: “We think this is a good decision by the Commission and member states. Emissions Analytics started testing tailpipe emissions on the road four years ago as we identified this was the only way to truly understand real-world performance. It is good to see this is now being recognised in the legislation.”

 

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