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DUH tests show German car emissions exceed Euro 6 standard much in winter

Xinhua, March 29, 2017 Adjust font size:

A German environmental organization Wednesday released the results of its independent tests on 16 new diesel cars, founding that the Euro 6 standards for diesel passenger car limits for nitrogen oxide (NOx) were exceeded by up to 17.2 times in the winter months.

According to the Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), the cars were tested while driving under normal road conditions, rather than in a laboratory.

DUH found that the Euro 6 standards for diesel passenger car limits for nitrogen oxide (NOx), which were exceeded by up to 9.2 times during the summer months, were exceeded by up to 17.2 times during the winter months.

The worst performers were the Mercedes B-Class 180 d (1.039 mg NOx/km or 13 times the Euro 6 limit), Opel Zafira Tourer 1.6 CDTi (995 mg NOx/km or 12.4 times the limit) and the Mercedes C-Class 220 d (770 mg NOx/km or 9.6 times the limit).

The best performers were the Mercedes E-Class 200d (of the new, 654 engine generation with 43 mg NOx/km) as well as the Audi A5 2.0 TDI (with 40 mg NOx /km).

An Audi spokesman told Xinhua, "Every combustion engine -- not only diesel -- has certain characteristics and behavior, being a dynamic and not (a) stationary machine. It therefore creates different results under individual driving, road and weather conditions."

He added that Audi, and other Volkswagen Group brands, compared favorably with their peers on the road compared to both Euro 5 and Euro 6 standards.

Nitrogen oxide and particulate matter pollution in many German cities is often above the statutory limits. This has led to calls for diesel cars of the Euro 5 emissions limit generation or earlier to be banned from city centers. However, the DUH said that the toxic NOx emissions of the tested Euro 6 diesel cars during on the road use are even higher than those of Euro 4 diesel cars.

Daimler told Xinhua that it had insufficient information about the test conditions to be able to provide an expert opinion on the results. Their spokesman pointed out that, "Compared to the certified standard values, deviations can occur during real driving operation."

He added that, "The Federal Ministry of Transport and the Federal Motor Transport Office have not found any breach of applicable laws in our vehicles," and said that Mercedes-Benz supports industry initiatives to ensure that both standard and real operation driving test values are brought closer together in the future. Endit