ICCT Report: The Diesel is Still Not Clean

Many pre-RDE diesel vehicles still in circulation

Based on market statistics created by the ICCT, the authors estimate that a total of around 53 million diesel vehicles have been sold in the EU and the UK that are certified to the Euro-5 and pre-RDE Euro-6 standards. Considering only the vehicles tested by official authorities, around 24 million sold diesel vehicles show suspicious emissions - of which 16.3 million are diesel vehicles with extreme emissions. These numbers would be even higher if government authorities expanded their tests to examine more vehicle models, such as the 60 additional vehicle models that exhibit suspicious emissions in independent tests and remote sensing, the ICCT further outlines.

"Our review shows that the issue of high NOx emissions is widespread among all manufacturers. As the largest manufacturer of diesel vehicles in Europe, the Volkswagen Group produced the most vehicles with suspicious emissions. But several other manufacturers have also sold millions of vehicles with suspicious and extreme emissions. Renault-Nissan, for example, sold over 4 million vehicles with extreme emissions. In terms of percentage of total sales, nearly all manufacturer groups have sold a higher share of vehicles with extreme emissions than the Volkswagen Group," reports the ICCT.

The ten most popular vehicle models that exhibit extreme emissions in official government tests accounted for around 4.5 million sales. Nearly all of these models would also have exhibited extreme emissions in independent practical tests or remote sensing. Three of the ten models with extreme emissions were manufactured by the Volkswagen Group and used EA189 engines, for which mandatory software updates were conducted, but which continued to exhibit emissions far above legal limits even after recalls, according to the ICCT. More than seven times the limit, according to the report, is the Opel Insignia with a two-liter engine, which is the furthest above the limit. Four models of the Renault-Nissan alliance under the Dacia brand also exceed the limit by six times, according to the ICCT. The Euro-5 diesel VW Passat, VW Tiguan, and Skoda Octavia of the VW Group are still four times above the permissible limit, according to the ICCT.

Euro 7 standard in response to the diesel scandal

The issue of high NOx emissions from diesel engines in real-world driving was recognized more than eight years ago, and this reassessment of the emissions data shows even more clearly how widespread the likely use of illegal defeat devices is. Although only limited remedial actions have been taken so far, there have been significant responses. The recently announced Euro-7 regulation will introduce more comprehensive testing requirements, which will help to improve the enforcement of real emissions, believes the ICCT. At the city level, environmental zones have been set up across Europe to improve air quality by targeting diesel vehicles and other high-polluting vehicle groups.

"But these measures alone cannot eliminate the tens of millions of diesel vehicles whose NOx emissions still exceed the legal limit many times over. Now that the ECJ rulings have removed a major obstacle to the enforcement of defeat devices, it is time for EU member states and the UK to comprehensively address the issue of excessive NOx emissions from diesel vehicles," the institute demanded.