Author: AIRIndex Author

REALE EMISSIONSWERTE WERDEN DEN WIEDERAUFBAU DER INDUSTRIE NACH COVID-19 ERMÖGLICHEN UND DABEI DIE LUFTQUALITÄT ERHALTEN UND DEN CO2-AUSSTOẞ VERRINGERN – DE

  • Sauberere Fahrzeuge sind jederzeit verfügbar, müssen jedoch von den schmutzigen unterschieden werden
  • Die realen Emissionswerte ermöglichen eine Konjunkturerholung für die Automobilindustrie
  • Daten zeigen die saubersten Fahrzeuge auf, damit Entscheidungsträger die richtigen Entscheidungen treffen können
  • Die Handlungsempfehlung basiert auf realitätsnahen Tests gemäß einem genormten Verfahren
  • Offizielle Angaben sind nicht detailliert genug, um die saubersten und effizientesten Fahrzeuge zu identifizieren
  • Der AIR Index fügt neue CO2-Werte zu den bestehenden NOX-Daten für Städte hinzu
  • Jetzt kostenlos erhältlich auf www.airindex.com

GESPERRT BIS 22. April 00:00 Uhr Britische Sommerzeit (01:00 Uhr MEZ) – Neue Realdaten zu Fahrzeugemissionen ermöglichen ein Wiedererstarken der Automobilindustrie und der globalen Wirtschaft, die von COVID-19 stark geschädigt wurden, bei gleichzeitig geringeren Auswirkungen auf die Luftverschmutzung und den Klimawandel.

Der AIR Index auf airindex.com identifiziert die saubersten Autos, damit Käufer sicher die saubersten Fahrzeuge auswählen können, um so die Automobilindustrie, die von der Pandemie schwer angeschlagen ist, neu zu beleben.

Die frei verfügbare Datenbank ist das Ergebnis rigoroser Straßentests gemäß Abgastest-Norm CWA 17379. Darin werden die realen Stickoxid- (NOx) und Kohlenstoffdioxidemissionen (CO2) aufgeführt – wichtige Schadstoffe, die gemessen werden, um Luftqualität und klimatische Veränderungen zu beurteilen.

Aus der Liste wird ersichtlich, dass saubere und effiziente Fahrzeuge mit niedrigen NOx– und CO2-Emissionen bereits für die Allgemeinheit zur Verfügung stehen.

Heute, am 50. Jahrestag des Earth Day *, ermöglicht der AIR Index ein Wiederaufleben der Industrie, behält jedoch dabei die verbesserte Luftqualität als Ergebnis der globalen Ausgangssperre bei.

Der AIR Index wird von der AIR Alliance (AIR) veröffentlicht und veranschaulicht das Risiko, Fahrzeuge einzig aufgrund offizieller Emissionswerte auszuwählen, die nicht detailliert genug sind, um die saubersten Autos zu identifizieren. Ein Euro-6-Fahrzeug kann sauber oder schmutzig sein. Die offiziellen Daten geben hier nicht genug Klarheit für eine genaue Unterscheidung.

AIR sagt: Wir dürfen die schmutzigen Fahrzeuge nicht mehr in unsere Städte lassen.

Vorhandene Hybridtechnologie kann CO2 erheblich reduzieren, während einige sorgfältig ausgewählte Verbrennungsmotoren inzwischen äußerst niedrige Mengen an Schadstoffemissionen erreichen.

Beide Produkte sind bereits verfügbar, zwingen den Käufer nicht dazu, sein Verhalten zu ändern, und benötigen in Zeiten erheblicher finanzpolitischer Herausforderungen keine staatliche Förderung.

Nick Molden, Mitbegründer von AIR, sagte:

Mit der langsamen Rückkehr zur Normalität nach COVID-19 können sich Gesetzgeber, Hersteller und Käufer auf Fahrzeuge konzentrieren, die die Luftverschmutzung reduzieren, die durch den Wirtschaftsaufschwung wieder ansteigen wird.

Der AIR Index steht allen, einschließlich Automobilherstellern und Entscheidungsträgern, kostenlos zur Verfügung. Wir wollen den Index all denjenigen zur Verfügung stellen, die echte Veränderungen bewirken können.

Da passt es ganz gut, dass uns am Earth Day *, an dem normalerweise Millionen von Menschen das 50. Jubiläum der Kampagnen für einen besseren Klimaschutz gefeiert hätten, eine verlässliche Onlinedatenbank zur Verfügung steht, die zur Senkung der Emissionen auf der ganzen Welt führen kann.

Der AIR bietet Informationen zu den Emissionswerten von hunderten von Fahrzeugen und klassifiziert diese anhand mehrerer Straßentests von A (das beste Fahrzeug) bis E (das schlechteste Fahrzeug).

Als gemeinnützige Organisation ist AIR Alliance unabhängig von der Industrie tätig und kann mit der größten Datenbank an Testergebnissen zeigen, was Fahrzeuge durchgehend bei realen Bedingungen auf der Straße leisten.

Europäische Städte erleben derzeit einen Rückgang von Schadstoffemissionen wie NOx, und CO2, da sich Ausgangssperren erheblich auf die Anzahl der Fahrzeuge auf der Straße auswirken.

Die Herausforderung und die Möglichkeit liegt hier in der Rückkehr zur Massenmobilität, ohne dabei jedoch die gleichen Schadstoffmengen wie vor der Pandemie zu erreichen.

Schlechte Luftqualität steht nachweislich mit einer schnelleren Verbreitung des Coronavirus in Zusammenhang. AIR Alliance wendet sich mit einem pragmatischen Ansatz an Regierungen, Regionen, Städte und die Automobilindustrie, um so noch schneller eine Reduzierung der Emissionen erreichen zu können.

Die Automobilindustrie muss sich nicht auf staatliche Förderung verlassen

Schon jetzt werden Konjunkturprogramme wie Abwrackprämien für die Automobilindustrie gefordert, die Autokäufern einen Anreiz bot, ihr altes emissionsreiches Fahrzeug einzutauschen.

Nick Molden fügt hinzu:

Natürlich gibt es viele Wege, um die Reduzierung von Emissionen anzusprechen. Doch diese Anreize sind äußerst kostspielig, insbesondere in einer Zeit, in der Regierungen und Kunden vor beispiellosen Herausforderungen stehen. Der AIR Index enthält Daten, die einen viel zielgerichteteren Ansatz ermöglichen, und stellt dabei eine kostenlose und schnelle Lösung zur Verfügung. Wir wissen, dass offizielle Emissionswerte nicht ausreichen. Doch mit unseren realitätsnahen Tests und den dazugehörigen Ergebnissen können die richtigen Entscheidungen getroffen werden.

Die Daten zeigen, dass z. B. der Euro-6-Standard nicht ausreicht, wenn Regierungen, Fahrzeughersteller und Gesetzgeber die Klimaprobleme ernsthaft angehen möchten. Der kostenlose AIR Index bietet einen festen Rahmen für sämtliche Strategien in Bezug auf Luftqualität und Klimawandel.

Gute Luftqualität sollte kein Luxusgut sein, sondern etwas, das wir für die Gesundheit der Allgemeinheit anstreben sollten. COVID-19 hat hier die Vorteile von sauberer Luft aufgezeigt. Da sollten wir jetzt weitermachen.

Mit diesen Daten kann sich die Automobilindustrie auf die Fahrzeuge konzentrieren, die heute einen echten Unterschied machen, und ein Umfeld für ein Wiedererstarken in einer Welt schaffen, in der saubere Fahrzeuge die Regel und nicht die Ausnahme sind.

Während batterieelektrische Fahrzeuge weiter auf dem Vormarsch sind, zeigt der AIR Index, dass Hybridfahrzeuge eine kurzfristige Lösung zur Reduzierung von Emissionen darstellen. Auch andere Technologien legen weiter zu, einschließlich der neuesten sauberen und effizienten Euro-6-Benziner und -Diesel. Sie zeigen jedoch auch, dass einige ältere „saubere“ Diesel, die mit Euro 6 konform sind, weiterhin Teil des Problems sind.

Der AIR wurde entwickelt, um Politik, Kontroversen und kommerzielle Konflikte in Bezug auf Fahrzeugemissionen zu umgehen. Seine Mission liegt in der Darlegung von reinen Informationen, die auf der gemeinsamen wissenschaftlichen Erfahrung und dem Fachwissen von weltweit führenden Experten im Bereich der Fahrzeugemissionen, der Luftqualität und dem Gesundheitswesen basieren.

Schließen Sie sich AIR an und helfen Sie dabei, die Luftqualität zu verbessern und dem Klimawandel entgegenzuwirken.

AIR ist ein offenes Bündnis gleichgesinnter Mitglieder. Alle Organisationen, egal ob öffentlich oder privat, die dieselben Werte und Grundsätze teilen, können beitreten.

Führende Wissenschaftlicher haben die Wichtigkeit des AIR Index erkannt und fordern Fahrzeughersteller dazu auf, die Zahlen zu nutzen, um sauberere Fahrzeuge zu bauen.

Dan Carder, Mitglied des Beratenden Wissenschaftsausschusses von AIR und Leiter des Centre for Alternative Fuels, Engines and Emissions (Zentrum für alternative Brennstoffe, Maschinen und Emissionen) der West Virginia University leitete das Team, das die ersten Hinweise auf eine Täuschung von Volkswagen bei US-amerikanischen Emissionstests lieferte und so den Abgasskandal aufdeckte. Er sagte:

Der AIR Index bietet objektive, unabhängige und öffentlich verfügbare Bewertungen der tatsächlichen NOx- und CO2-Werte von Fahrzeugen auf der Straße in städtischen Umgebungen. Dadurch kann er Informationen bieten und mitgestalten, wie Fahrzeuge genutzt werden, um so Umwelteinflüsse des Wirtschaftsaufschwungs einzuschränken.

ENDE

Pressekontakt

Tim Bowdler
tim.bowdler@newspress.co.uk
+44 (0)7434 940162

Besuchen Sie airindex.com. Hier einige Beispiele für beliebte Fahrzeuge, die im AIR Index bewertet werden:

Modell NOx Emissionen (mg/km) Air Index NOx Bewertung CO2 Emissionen (g/km) Air Index CO2 Bewertung Bewertung
2019 Peugeot Partner 1,6 Liter Diesel 0-80 130-180 Meistverkauftes leichtes Nutzfahrzeug
2019 Renault Clio 1,0 Liter Benzin 0-80 130-180 Beliebter Kleinwagen – neuester Benziner
2018 Renault Clio 1,5 Liter Diesel  80-168 95-130 Beliebter Kleinwagen – Diesel
2020 Kia Sportage 1,6 Liter Diesel-Hybrid (MHEV) 0-80 130-180 Meistverkauftes SUV-Model – Mild-Hybrid
2020 Kia Sportage 1,6 Liter Benzin 0-80 130-180 Meistverkauftes SUV-Model – Benziner
2019 Kia Sportage 1,6 Liter Diesel 0-80 130-180 Meistverkauftes SUV-Model – Diesel
2018 VW Passat 2,0 Liter Diesel 80-168 95-130 Beliebte Familienlimousine – Diesel

Hinweise an die Redakteure:

AIR führt kontinuierlich Testprogramme für Fahrzeuge durch und dem AIR Index werden regelmäßig weitere Daten hinzugefügt.

Inspiriert wurde der AIR Index von NCAP, dem unabhängigen Programm zur Sicherheitsbewertung von Neuwagen, das in den 1970er Jahren in den USA entwickelt und weltweit zum Industriestandard wurde. Das Programm zog Autohersteller für ihre Sicherheitsleistung zur Rechenschaft und sorgte so für eine freiwillige Annahme von Technologien, die zu sicheren Fahrzeugen führten.

AIR testet für den AIR Index mindestens zwei verschiedene Fahrzeuge eines jeden derzeit verfügbaren Modells. Der Test wird dabei mit einem wissenschaftlich fundierten Programm auf der Straße durchgeführt. Anschließend werden dann die Emissionswerte für eine Bewertung im AIR Index zusammengestellt.

Für die Beurteilung eines jeden Fahrzeugs wird das neueste Verfahren gemäß CWA 17379 verwendet. Dieses wurde auf europäischer Ebene entwickelt, um die Emissionswerte unterschiedlicher Fahrzeuge mit Hilfe eines mobilen Emissionsmessgeräts (PEMS) fair vergleichen zu können und so sicherzustellen, dass die Technologie zuverlässige Emissionsdaten liefert, die transparent und für alle verfügbar sind.

* Der erste Earth Day wurde am 22. April 1970 veranstaltet und führte 20 Millionen Amerikaner auf die Straßen und Universitätsgelände hunderter Städte, um gegen die Ölkatastrophe an der Küste Santa Barbaras zu protestieren. Der erste Earth Day wird als Start der Kampagnen für die Umwelt angesehen und stellt heute die größte Bürgerinitiative der Welt dar.

The AIR Alliance Q&A

How can the data in the AIR Index help the automotive industry?

There is a massive lack of trust and now, overlaid over the top of that, is the onset of a recession. Using trustworthy, independent data gives the confidence to go and buy the right thing. With this data you can have confidence you can make informed decisions about doing the best thing for the environment. At this point you will be motivated to buy with confidence, and that is good for the industry.

What this isn’t about is telling people that they have to buy only expensive electric vehicles. There is a range of different technologies at different price points that can fulfil what you need as a car or van owner.

Who would most benefit from the AIR Index?

Firstly, cities that have to choose which vehicles to restrict and which vehicles to not in order to achieve air quality, will benefit. Secondly, governments that set the broader policy – particularly in relation to climate change – in line with the reality of the CO2 that comes out of the tailpipe. Thirdly, buyers, either individuals, who make their own informed judgements, and fleets who set fleet renewal policies.

How can the AIR Index ultimately lead to the adoption of cleaner cars and vans?

Cities can use this information to set appropriate access restrictions, and that immediately means you are incentivising people to make the switch to cleaner vehicles. Interestingly, there is also an opportunity around retrofits. You may have one of the early, dirty Euro 6s, but that car could easily still be worth £15k or maybe more, so it’s actually worth spending the money to get it retro-fitted so you can hang on to your car rather than replacing it. It means you can carry on going into the city. Obviously, individuals and fleets will make decisions based on the data, while central government route can use it to form its taxation policies such as VED.

Why is the data in the AIR Index different from the RDE official tests?

It is quite like the RDE official test, but it covers pre-RDE vehicles. The problem here is not RDE vehicles, but pre-RDE, so you have the Euro5 and all the older ones, but also from 2013 through to 2018 you have five years of pre-RDE Euro 6 vehicles. People have been misled, on the premise that Euro 6 is good, but they are not all clean. There are millions of pre-RDE, dirty Euro 6s out there, so what the AIR Index is, is effectively, a streamlined version of RDE for pre-RDE vehicles. In a very cost-efficient way, we re-classify all these older vehicles, so we know the ones that are good, and those that are bad.

We use the same equipment and a lot of the same test protocol as RDE, but we just simplified it through the mechanism of the CEN Workshop Agreement CWA 17379 which was initiated in 2017 and resulted in a wide range of vehicles being tested. We took the essential elements of RDE, put a pre-RDE spin on it in order to have a usable metric to reclassify that back catalogue.

How is the test data in the AIR Index researched?

CWA 17379 is now a documented public domain protocol that was produced through an open workshop process with a wide range of experts’ input, not least from the industry, and manufacturers but also cities, academics and even the European authorities. That standard is not something we just dreamt up ourselves, this was a consciously open process. It is a public, documented standard that has a legal framework to it and that means that if a city wanted to adopt it for example, it could do without fear of legal challenge

What is the of the mission of the AIR Alliance?

It is to solve the problems of air quality and climate change-related emissions by using independent, real-world, trustworthy data. This is not about picking winners it is about giving the information to allow the market to work properly. It is not us guessing where things should go, it’s saying if a new technology can prove that it’s really clean, then fantastic. But it needs to have that official stamp of independent data and it gets away from this whole vested interest of manufacturers doing it and manipulating their tests, all under the protection of the European Commission. The AIR Alliance is an open platform that anyone can join. We are transparent about our methods and if people can coalesce around that we can get away from those vested interests, the lack of transparency and untrustworthy processes.

Is the AIR Alliance only concerned with the internal combustion engine?

It’s much broader than that. Currently, we are working on another standardisation process around in-vehicle air quality. When you are sitting in your vehicle, you are in a sealed unit that contains all sorts of pollution, but the reality is that some cars are better than others. So, we are standardising the method around that, and that applies to pure electric vehicles, hybrids, trucks and tractors as well as vehicles powered by internal combustion engines.

Who funds the AIR Alliance?

It’s a member-based organisation and we have already built up an interesting range of members from the Bruno Kessler foundation –  a private research foundation based in Italy – the Energy Saving Trust, Cenex, through to more operational businesses such as MotorCheck, which is a database provider from Ireland. Those people put in a mixture of cash and kind to support the activities of AIR. We are not funded by any governments or Europe or manufacturers, and that model allows us to publish our data free of charge.

According to some reports, air pollution is linked to a faster spread of COVID-19. What’s your take on these claims?

It is quite early stages in terms of scientific evidence in terms of air pollution, the death rate and the spread of the virus. That said, studies were carried out after the SARs and MERS outbreaks and a link was found. Therefore, the idea that a respiratory-based virus has a more damaging effect in polluted areas is not just plausible, but also borne out by previous epidemics. It is well documented, and not a surprise, that certain demographic groups and geographic areas will have more health issues because of higher air pollution. So, you may well see higher mortality rates in areas where there is greater air pollution. There was one notable incident where a girl living near the South Circular in London died and, at the inquest, the coroner, for the very first time, revised the initial cause of death and then attributed it to  ‘air pollution’. That has set the precedent for the idea that air pollution can be directly linked to increased mortality. The research into the COVID-19 pandemic will come out in time and, if it follows this train of historical research, then it may well show a link. Good air quality should not be a luxury, it is something that, from a public health point of view, we should require

Christmas Home Delivery Shock: Dirtiest Parcel Vans are 17 Times More Polluting than Cleanest, Says AIR Index

Independent real-world rating system’s tests found a huge variation in van emissions – pointing to a major impact on urban emissions over the festive period

  • From Black Friday to Christmas, the festive season adds an extra 19,000 light commercial vehicles to our roads to cope with increased parcel deliveries
  • The vast majority of those vans are diesel, but not all are the same when it comes to real-world tailpipe emissions
  • The AIR Index reveals that the Mercedes Citan has the worst emissions of the best-selling Euro 6 light commercial vehicles (LCVs) tested, emitting 17 times more NOx than Volkswagen’s Crafter, one of the lowest emitters
  • But the AIR Index also shows that manufacturer-led updates of a van’s engine management system can slash emissions easily and quickly
  • Vans are a vital part of our transport network and have a major role to play in cleaning up urban air quality – the AIR Alliance calls on manufacturers rapidly to roll-out emissions updates and advises van buyers and policymakers to use the index to identify the cleanest vehicles
  • More information available at the AIR Index website www.airindex.com
  • Images and video available http://bit.ly/AIR_NOx and https://youtu.be/kxpOPPIeSy4

17 December 2019 – Would you rather 17 vans arrived at your home to deliver a Christmas parcel or just the one? That’s the difference in emissions between the dirtiest and cleanest home delivery van as tested by the AIR Index, and it’s adding to an urban pollution crisis that not only peaks over the festive season but is a growing problem throughout the year.

With retail events such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the month-long run up to Christmas, combined with the growth in online shopping, demand for home delivery is still growing rapidly. Staveley Head, courier insurers found that parcel delivery increased by 11 percent last year; delivery companies such as Royal Mail, Hermes, DPD, Yodel and UPS are increasing the number of vehicles on the road to cope, adding 19,000 extra vans to the network during the festive period.

But even if the majority of those vans are the latest Euro 6 diesels, not all of them have the same real-world tailpipe emissions. The AIR Alliance, publishers of the AIR Index – an international, independent and standardised rating system that reveals accurately how much pollution a vehicle produces when it is used in towns and cities – tested some of the best-selling Euro 6 diesel vans in Europe, giving each vehicle a simple A-E colour-coded rating according to the latest CWA17379 methodology.

The results reveal the huge difference between real-world emissions and laboratory-based legal limits. For instance, the 2019 Volkswagen Crafter is rated an ‘A’ on the AIR Index, emitting 53 mg/km NOx, 72 mg less than the large-van (Class III) laboratory-based legal limit of 125 mg/km, but the 2019 Mercedes Citan is rated an ‘E’ on the AIR Index, emitting 902 mg/km of NOx, more than 8 times the (Class II) light-van laboratory-based legal limit of 105 mg/km – and 17 times more polluting than the Volkswagen.

If the extra 19,000 vans added to the network over the festive period were all Volkswagen Crafters rather than Mercedes Citans, 1kg of NOx would enter the urban area rather than 17.1kg. With the average parcel van travelling between 20,000 and 30,000 miles a year – in other words up to 20,000 miles further than a passenger car – and every day some 65,000 unique LCV journeys being made into London by vans alone, the scale of the emissions problem is easy to see.

Created to inform and empower consumers, owner-drivers, fleet operators and policy makers with the real facts about emissions when making choices about vehicle purchase and usage, the AIR Index is a vital tool in helping to clean up urban air quality.

The AIR Alliance tested a cross-section of the best-selling vans in Europe equating to half of the two million new vans registered in 2017. All of the vans tested meet the Ultra-Low Emissions Zone standards in London. The AIR Index ratings showed that of the 10 vans tested, only three received an ‘A’ rating, yet all can be driven through the Ultra Low Emission Zone without penalty:

* Official NOx limit refers to the in-laboratory Euro standards, and NOx limits for vans vary according to vehicle by classification by weight, eg Euro 6 Class I = 80 mg/km, Euro 6 Class II = 105 mg/km, Euro 6 Class III = 125 mg/km ** Provisional rating

Shocking as this table is, the power dramatically and rapidly to improve emissions from dirty vans lies within the hands of the manufacturers. For example, AIR found that when it commissioned a test of the Mercedes Vito CDI 111 LWB 1.6, a simple manufacturer-led update of the vehicle’s emissions management system halved the NOx emissions when tested again. This would be the equivalent of improving the AIR Index rating from ‘D’ to ‘C’.

Massimo Fedeli, Co-founder and Operations Director, AIR said: “Christmas is a time for giving and this year we urge van manufacturers to give us cleaner air. The ultimate responsibility to implement change lies with them: simple service-led engine management updates can make vans much cleaner, dramatically reducing emissions immediately.

“In the short term, we hope that those in charge of purchasing van fleets and making policy around ULEZ will use the AIR Index so that they are better equipped to know which vans are the cleanest, allowing them to choose the greenest vehicles, helping tackle the air crisis we are currently battling.”

Nick Molden, co-founder of AIR said: “Vans play a vital role in moving goods quickly and efficiently around our cities – over the Christmas period their mileage increases enormously, so it is crucial that only the cleanest vans are allowed to enter urban areas. Euro standards alone will not deliver the expected air quality improvements in towns or cities. The use of independent, trusted emissions ratings from the AIR Index offer a faster and more effective route to clean urban air, helping policy makers limit the impact of harmful emissions in towns and cities.”

ENDS

Media contacts

Email PressOfficer@allowAIR.org

Call +44 (0) 7815 863 968

About the AIR Index

Cars and vans rated for the AIR Index are tested according to the CWA 17379 standardised methodology which ensures that the results are independent, comparable and can be used as the basis for a legal framework for vehicle policies.

The testing is carried out on at least two vehicles, sourced independently from vehicle manufacturers with portable emissions testing units (PEMS) recording actual on-road driving in towns and cities. For a result to be considered acceptable for rating in the AIR Index there must be at least five, 10 km trips completed during three separate journeys on at least two matching vehicles in line with the CEN standard.

The results of the tests provide the basis to rate the vehicle according to the A-E, colour-coded scale.

The AIR Index website includes more than 200 results of the first tests conducted with ratings A-E, but also provides a facility to check other vehicles on the road to see if they would be allowed access (or not) to the 14 German cities which have set a NOx limit of 270 mg/km under the Federal Emissions Control Act.

Other cities across Europe are considering a similar threshold to control access and allow only the cleanest cars to enter. Car and van buyers should consider carefully the implication for a vehicle’s residual value, and their own mobility requirements, if it is unable to enter a town or city where emissions are controlled.

About AIR

AIR (Allow Independent Road-testing) is an independent alliance of public and private organisations, which promotes the voluntary uptake of independent on-road emissions testing.

The alliance’s key objective is to contribute to delivering a cost-effective and timely reduction in harmful vehicle emissions in urban areas, while ensuring the lowest CO2 emissions from the global vehicle fleet.

AIR seeks to empower citizens, industry and public authorities to take informed decisions on their mobility practices and policies by promoting full transparency on vehicle emission levels.

Scientific Advisory Committee

The development of the AIR Index has been led by the world’s leading academics in the fields of emissions and air quality and they make up AIR’s Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC).

  • Professor Helen ApSimon, Professor of Air Pollution Studies, Imperial College London.
  • Dr Adam Boies, Reader in the Energy Division, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge.
  • Dan Carder, Director for Alternative Fuels, Engines and Emissions, West Virginia University.
  • Dr Claire Holman, Chair, Institute of Air Quality Management.
  • Dr Guido Lanzani, Head of Air Quality Unit, Regional Environmental Agency, Lombardy Region.
  • Dr Norbert Ligterink, Senior Research Scientist, TNO.
  • Martin Lutz, Head of Sector Air Quality Management, Berlin Senate Department for Environment, Transport and Climate Protection.
  • Dr Xavier Querol, Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research, Spanish Council for Scientific Research.
  • Dr Marc Stettler, Lecturer in Transport and the Environment, Centre for Transport Studies, Imperial College London.
  • Professor Martin Williams, Professor of Air Quality Research, Kings College London.

Notes on European Air Quality

The European Environment Agency provides independent information on the environment for those involved in developing, adopting, implementing and evaluating environmental policy and the general public. In its latest report, published in April 2018, updated in May 20191, the European Environment Agency stated that for particles and nitrogen dioxide, because of the widespread exceedance levels in urban areas, it is unlikely that the air quality standards for these pollutants will be met by 2020 across the EU.
1 see https://www.eea.europa.eu/airs/2018/environment-and-health/outdoor-air-quality-urban-areas

Notes on Parcel deliveries

Courier Insurers, Staveley Head, have collated behind-the-scenes data from some of the UK’s biggest brands including Amazon, Argos, Royal Mail and more with their Black Friday Logistics report.

See https://www.staveleyhead.co.uk/blog/commercial-vehicle/behind-the-scenes-black-friday

Background to the AIR Index testing process

Emissions Analytics, founded by Nick Molden (Co-founder of AIR), was a pioneer in methodologies to test on-road emissions using Portable Emissions Systems (PEMS) equipment. The experience and insight gained from more than 2,000 tests conducted by EA informed the development of the CWA 17379 protocol on which the AIR Index rating is based.

Emissions Analytics has licensed the use of its data including the EQUA Index within the AIR Index database, enabling insight for car buyers and policy makers as to whether vehicles are allowed access (or not) to enter cities which have set a NOx limit of 270 mg/km.

Further information about Allow Independent Road-testing (AIR) can be found at www.airindex.com

Top Selling Vans Have the Worst Real-World Urban NOx Emissions, Latest AIR Index Tests Find

Independent real-world rating system puts emissions of best-selling vans in the spotlight with some encouraging and some shocking resultsAIR Index finds that Ford’s Transit has the worst emissions of the Top 10 best-selling Euro 6 LCVs, emitting 18 times more NOx than Volkswagen’s Crafter, one of the lowest emitters

  • AIR Index finds that Ford’s Transit has the worst emissions of the Top 10 best-selling Euro 6 LCVs, emitting 18 times more NOx than Volkswagen’s Crafter, one of the lowest emitters
  • A huge variation exists between real world emissions of Euro 6 compliant diesel vans and laboratory-based legal limits
  • Light van contribution to urban air quality is a significant problem – delivery vans can travel up to 30,000 miles each year, around three times further than cars
  • Yet they are a vital part of our transport network and have a major role to play in cleaning up urban air quality – the AIR Index can help buyers and policymakers identify the cleanest and dirtiest
  • Independent AIR Index shows the actual nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions for each vehicle using an A-E colour-coded rating, endorsed by global air quality and vehicle emissions experts
  • Companies and drivers are advised to check the AIR Index to make the most informed decision about how to run their van fleet
  • More information available at the AIR Index website www.airindex.com

13 November 2019: The Volkswagen Crafter is the cleanest Euro 6 van tested based on real-world emissions, but the Ford Transit emits 18 times more pollution, yet both vehicles conform to the laboratory-based legal standards.

Those are some of the latest findings from the AIR Index, an international, independent and standardised rating system that reveals accurately how much pollution a vehicle produces when it is used in towns and cities. AIR Index rated eleven of Europe’s best-selling diesel light commercial vehicles using scientifically robust, on-road vehicle testing according to the latest CWA17379 methodology to give each vehicle a simple A-E colour-coded rating, showing the difference between clean and dirty vehicles.

The 2019 Volkswagen Crafter CR35 LWB High Roof 2.0 litre is rated an ‘A’ by the AIR Index, emitting 53 mg/km NOx, 72mg less than the large-van (Class III) laboratory-based legal limit of 125 mg/km, but the 2016 Ford Transit Custom 2.2 litre gets an ‘E’ rating, emitting an extremely high 955 mg/km, eight times over the laboratory-based legal limit. The 2019 Mercedes’ Citan 109 Blue Dualiner 1.5 litre is also rated an ‘E’ by the AIR Index, emitting 902 mg/km of NOx, more than 11 times the (Class I) light-van laboratory-based legal limit.

However, Volkswagen’s 2018 Caddy C20 Highline TDI 2.0 litre and Peugeot’s 2019 Partner Asphalt 1.6 litre both get an ‘A’ rating, as their on-road emissions fall below the 80 mg/km laboratory-based light-van limit.

In terms of urban road traffic, van emissions have a major impact on air quality simply because they are used far more than cars. The average parcel van travels between 20,000 and 30,000 miles a year, while grocery home delivery vans can cover up to 50,000 miles per annum. Even at the lower average of 20,000 miles, the Ford Transit tested by the AIR Index would emit 29 more tonnes of urban NOx than the Volkswagen Crafter over the course of a year.

Vans are also the fastest-growing traffic segment, accounting for 70 per cent of the growth in road-miles over the last 20 years. As internet shopping continues to grow, so do light van sales. Every day there are 65,000 unique LCV journeys into London alone and vans contribute 15 percent of London traffic – and a higher proportion of diesel vehicular traffic.

As AIR noted at the launch of the AIR Index for cars earlier this year, a number of Euro 6 cars still emit significantly more NOx on the road than in the laboratory test used for their type approval and there is huge overall variation between cars despite them all complying with in-laboratory Euro 6 emissions standards.

Created to inform and empower consumers, owner-drivers, fleet operators and policy makers with the real facts about emissions when making choices about vehicle purchase and usage, the AIR Index is a vital tool in helping to clean up urban air quality.

The results of the vans tested for AIR and rated in the AIR Index are:

    • The power to dramatically and rapidly improve emissions from dirty vans lies within the hands of the manufacturers. For example, AIR found that when it commissioned tests of the Mercedes Vito, a simple manufacturer-led update of the vehicle’s emissions management system halved the NOx emissions.

    AIR carries out an ongoing programme of vehicle testing and more results will be added to the AIR Index periodically.

    Inspiration for the AIR Index has been NCAP, the independent vehicle-safety rating system developed in the US in the 1970s that became the industry standard in the EU and around the world. The programme held car makers accountable for their safety performance, resulting in a voluntary adoption of technologies that led to safer vehicles.

    Massimo Fedeli, Co-founder and Operations Director, AIR said: “Light commercial vehicles play a vital role in moving goods quickly and efficiently around our cities and beyond. With the growth in internet shopping and the general Amazonisation of retail, they are an ever-increasing part of our transport network and it’s crucial that only the cleanest vans are allowed to enter urban areas.

    As the AIR Index revealed when we tested the real-world NOx emissions of passenger cars, there is a shocking variation in actual emissions compared with the official results based on laboratory tests.

    “AIR is calling on cities to supplement the use of Euro 6 standards for low emission zone entry – such as London’s own ULEZ – with the AIR Index database of real-world emissions results, to identify the dirtiest vans which are otherwise slipping through the net. By doing so, we believe the AIR Index could very quickly bring most European cities in line with air quality targets.”

    Nick Molden, Co-founder of AIR, said: “The results of these van tests for the AIR Index continues to hammer home the fact that current policy can’t do enough to prevent damage from high emitters and treat low emitters more fairly. This is impacting air quality across in cities across Europe and is potentially costing many thousands of lives. The AIR Index gives policy makers and fleet managers information they’ve never had before enabling informed decisions about the consequences of vehicle choice.

    “The Top 10 Euro 6 diesel vans we tested represent just under half of the annual sales across Europe. If just those rated D or E were prevented from entering the centre of urban areas the AIR Index could bring all European cities into air quality compliance.

    “But the ultimate responsibility to implement change lies with the manufacturers. With simple service-led engine management updates, it is possible to make vans much cleaner, dramatically reducing emissions immediately.”

    ENDS

    Media contacts
    Email PressOfficer@allowAIR.org
    Call +44 (0) 7815 863 968

    About the AIR Index

    Cars and vans rated for the AIR Index are tested according to the CWA 17379 standardised methodology which ensures that the results are independent, comparable and can be used as the basis for a legal framework for vehicle policies.

    The testing is carried out on at least two vehicles, sourced independently from vehicle manufacturers with portable emissions testing units (PEMS) recording actual on-road driving in towns and cities. For a result to be considered acceptable for rating in the AIR Index there must be at least five, 10 km trips completed during three separate journeys on at least two matching vehicles in line with the CEN standard.

    • The results of the tests provide the basis to rate the vehicle according to the A-E, colour-coded scale.

    The AIR Index website includes more than 200 results of the first tests conducted with ratings A-E, but also provides a facility to check other vehicles on the road to see if they would be allowed access (or not) to the 14 German cities which have set a NOx limit of 270 mg/km under the Federal Emissions Control Act.

    Other cities across Europe are considering a similar threshold to control access and allow only the cleanest cars to enter. Car and van buyers should consider carefully the implication for a vehicle’s residual value, and their own mobility requirements, if it is unable to enter a town or city where emissions are controlled.

    About AIR

    AIR (Allow Independent Road-testing) is an independent alliance of public and private organisations, which promotes the voluntary uptake of independent on-road emissions testing. The alliance’s key objective is to contribute to delivering a cost-effective and timely reduction in harmful vehicle emissions in urban areas, while ensuring the lowest CO2 emissions from the global vehicle fleet. AIR seeks to empower citizens, industry and public authorities to take informed decisions on their mobility practices and policies by promoting full transparency on vehicle emission levels.

    Scientific Advisory Committee

    The development of the AIR Index has been led by the world’s leading academics in the fields of emissions and air quality and they make up AIR’s Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC).

    • Professor Helen ApSimon, Professor of Air Pollution Studies, Imperial College London.
    • Dr Adam Boies, Reader in the Energy Division, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge.
    • Dan Carder, Director for Alternative Fuels, Engines and Emissions, West Virginia University.
    • Dr Claire Holman, Chair, Institute of Air Quality Management.
    • Dr Guido Lanzani, Head of Air Quality Unit, Regional Environmental Agency, Lombardy Region.
    • Dr Norbert Ligterink, Senior Research Scientist, TNO.
    • Martin Lutz, Head of Sector Air Quality Management, Berlin Senate Department for Environment, Transport and Climate Protection.
    • Dr Xavier Querol, Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research, Spanish Council for Scientific Research.
    • Dr Marc Stettler, Lecturer in Transport and the Environment, Centre for Transport Studies, Imperial College London.
    • Professor Martin Williams, Professor of Air Quality Research, Kings College London.

    Notes on European Air Quality

    The European Environment Agency provides independent information on the environment for those involved in developing, adopting, implementing and evaluating environmental policy and the general public. In its latest report, published in November 2018, updated in May 2019 the European Environment Agency stated that for particles and nitrogen dioxide, because of the widespread exceedance levels in urban areas, it is unlikely that the air quality standards for these pollutants will be met by 2020 across the EU. 1 see https://www.eea.europa.eu/airs/2018/environment-and-health/outdoor-air-quality-urban-areas

    Background to the AIR Index testing process

    Emissions Analytics (EA), founded by Nick Molden (Co-founder of AIR), was a pioneer in methodologies to test on-road emissions using Portable Emissions Systems (PEMS) equipment. The experience and insight gained from more than 2,000 tests conducted by EA informed the development of the CWA 17379 protocol on which the AIR Index rating is based. Emissions Analytics has licensed the use of its data including the EQUA Index within the AIR Index database, enabling insight for car buyers and policy makers as to whether vehicles are allowed access (or not) to enter cities which have set a NOx limit of 270 mg/km.

    Further information about Allow Independent Road-testing (AIR) can be found at www.airindex.com.

    Is London’s ULEZ doing enough to stop ‘dirty diesels’?

    This article was first published in Air Quality News

    By Nick Molden, Co-Founder of AIR

    8 November 2019: The launch of London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) has undoubtedly been a step in the right direction as the city continues to focus on improving air quality, and it has already delivered important reductions in nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations. But is it doing enough to stop ‘dirty diesels’ from entering the capital? Nick Molden, co-founder, AIR, discusses more.

    The biggest threat to taking urgent, effective action to improve air quality is for policy makers and the industry to focus exclusively on electric vehicles as a panacea. They are a mid- to long-term solution and simply cannot deliver a realistic short term because they are not available at scale. The blunt truth is that the European regulatory framework for pollutant emissions has failed in respect of nitrogen oxides – the Dieselgate gas – and the consequences of this must be tackled head on, now.  It means that vehicles of a variety of regulatory stages, but crucially including the latest Euro 6, cover the whole range from very clean to very dirty.  Yet, all sides cling to this failed regime as the perceived costs of doing anything else are too high. Making policy just to deal with the dirty ones is more difficult than more eye-catching policies, even if they will turn out to be more expensive for consumer and taxpayers. This is the real Bill for Clean Air.

    At AIR, we’d argue there’s plenty more that can be done. We created the AIR Index – the world’s only fully independent, standardised on-road emissions rating system – to give consumers and policymakers transparent real-world information about exactly what comes out of a car’s exhaust.

    We base ratings on actual urban NOx emissions because NOx is the biggest contributor to urban air quality violations in Europe, but in the fullness of time, we will expand to include CO2 and other harmful emissions.

    The ULEZ scheme allows for penalty-free access to the centre of London for Euro 4 compliant petrol cars and later, while diesels must be Euro 6 compliant. Both restrictions indicate that vehicles travelling within the ULEZ zone supposedly emit less than 80 mg/km of NOx, but testing conducted by AIR has shown that many Euro 6 diesels will legitimately still be producing many times the officially published NOx limit.

    The Euro 6 conundrum

    How bad can some cars be? Well, we tested a 2017 Renault Clio 1.5 litre dCi diesel and the results were staggering. The supermini emitted 20 times more NOx in urban driving than a 2018 Land Rover Discovery 3.0 litre TD6, diesel despite both vehicles falling under the category of ‘Euro 6’. The Clio is rated ‘E’ on the AIR Index while the Discovery has an ‘A’ rating, showing that a large SUV really can be ‘clean’ while a small hatchback can be extremely dirty.  What’s more, we’ve even found that some Euro 6 diesels produce more urban NOx than Euro 5 vehicles from up to nine years earlier.

    The fundamental problem with London’s ULEZ is that it doesn’t address the problem of urban NOx emissions in the real world and places too much faith in existing regulatory standards. But if London’s policy makers used the AIR Index in collaboration with Euro emissions standards, the ULEZ initiative would be able to harness its untapped potential and ensure that only the cleanest cars entered the zone – while the dirtiest paid the penalty.

    To date, the ULEZ has had a positive effect on NO2 concentrations in that specific area of London, reducing them by a third since April but if used in conjunction with the AIR Index, this could be much higher. Placing prohibitions on cars that were rated D and E by the AIR Index, could result in up to a 90 per cent reduction in NOx concentrations, achieving legal compliance quickly and efficiently.

    With the ULEZ generating more than £40m in revenue since its launch in April, there is the potential to re-invest significant sums of money into testing to ensure that only the vehicles that actually meet the required emissions standards are driving on our roads.

    This issue goes beyond London and we envisage a uniform way to use actual vehicle emissions, not just laboratory standards, as the basis for policies which will bring cleaner air, more quickly to everyone in cities across Europe.

    We are calling on all cities who have – or are about to implement a ULEZ to use the AIR Index to bring true improvements to air quality.

    Bristol’s diesel ban

    Bristol’s proposed ban on any privately-owned diesel car from entering the city centre is an approach made in good faith, but one that throws the baby out with the bath water.

    Many Euro 6 diesels are extremely clean and can play a major role in cleaning up a city’s air, although around half of the pre-RDE Euro 6 diesels are not. The role of the AIR Index is to identify the clean, which can be allowed in, while the true villains are banished.

    There is also the inconsistency between emissions from petrol and diesel vehicles. Bristol now plans to ban a clean 2019 Jaguar E-Pace diesel with urban NOx emissions of just 14 mg/km (more than four-fifths below the limit of 80 mg/km), yet allow in a 2017 Nissan Qashqai petrol which produces urban NOX emissions of 137 mg/km, which produces more than double the Euro emission limit of 60 mg/km.

    These are just two examples of vehicles rated for the AIR Index and show the complexity of the issue, which cannot be addressed with simple fuel-based bans.

    At AIR, our goal is to empower car buyers and city policymakers with real facts about actual vehicle emissions when making choices about car purchase and usage. Effective policy should be based on science, rather than swinging between regulations that are too loose and those which over-react.

    Only when we are fully informed can we make the best decision. Ultimately, we will all benefit.

    The AIR Alliance welcomes the Irish Government’s ground-breaking NOx-based car tax emissions plans


    Pioneering approach must use trusted, independent data to be fair and effective, which only the AIR Index provides

    • The Irish Government has taken global leadership with plans to replace the existing diesel surcharge with a NOx-based approach
    • NOx is the biggest contributor to poor urban air quality and the AIR Alliance applauds any move to focus on emissions in this way
    • ‘Polluter pays’ taxation must be based on reliable, trusted and independent data, which the AIR Index provides
    • The AIR Index shows a huge variation between real world NOx emissions of Euro 6 compliant cars and stated data from manufacturers  
    • The AIR Index shows the actual nitrogen oxides (NOx) urban emissions for each vehicle using an A-E colour-coded rating, endorsed by global air quality and emissions experts  
    • Companies and drivers are advised to check the AIR Index to make the most informed decision before buying a new or used car
    • More information available at the AIR Index website

    17 October 2019: The AIR Alliance, publishers of the AIR Index welcomes the Irish Government’s new plans to introduce a tax based on a vehicle’s NOx emissions, replacing the current one per cent diesel surcharge – but cautions that such a system can only be truly effective if it uses NOx data based on the actual emissions produced during on-road driving.

    Set to be applied to new car purchases and used imports from 1 January 2020, under the terms of the ground-breaking new NOx tax, the first 60mg/km of NOx emissions from new cars will be charged at a rate of €5 per mg.

    Above 60mg/km of NOx, the charge increases to €15 per mg, and above 81mg/km it jumps to €25 per mg. The NOx charge will be capped at a maximum of €4,850 for diesel vehicles and €600 for other vehicles. The Irish government quoted average NOx emissions from new cars at 43mg/km which  means that for the majority of new diesel models, the charge will just about directly replace the existing one per cent Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT) on diesel engine cars.

    However, as the AIR Index revealed from  tests earlier this year, the homologated data, reflected in the certificate of conformity, does not reflect on-road emissions in urban driving . A significant number of Euro 6 vehicles still emit significantly more NOx on the road than in the laboratory test used for their type approval and there is huge overall variation between cars despite them all complying with Euro 6 emissions standards.

    Created to inform and empower consumers, owner-drivers, fleet operators and policy makers with the real facts about emissions when making choices about vehicle purchase and usage, the AIR Index is a vital and independent tool in helping to clean up urban air quality.

    Using scientifically robust, on-road vehicle testing according to the latest CWA 17379 methodology giving each vehicle a simple A-E colour-coded rating, showing the difference between clean and dirty vehicles, the AIR Index is the world’s first international, independent and standardised rating system to reveal accurately how much pollution a vehicle produces when it is driven in towns and cities.

    Inspiration for the AIR Index has been NCAP, the independent vehicle-safety rating system developed in the US in the 1970s that became the industry standard in the EU and around the world. The programme held car makers accountable for their safety performance, resulting in a voluntary adoption of technologies that led to safer vehicles.

    Massimo Fedeli, Co-founder and Operations Director, AIR said: “We applaud the Irish Government for making the bold step to link a financial car tax charge to the milligrams of NOx emitted in light of public health and environmental concerns. Reducing NOx in urban areas is a core focus for the AIR Alliance, so this is a very positive move.

    “However, as results of on-road NOx emissions tests conducted for the AIR Index reveal, there is a shocking variation in actual emissions compared with stated official results. We would be delighted to work with the Irish Government to make this tax as effective as possible, using our database of real-world emissions results, to distinguish the clean from the dirty cars enabling informed choices within this polluter-pays policy.”

    Nick Molden, Co-founder of AIR said: “This is a ground-breaking and positive step towards cleaning up air quality in our cities. However, it needs the most accurate information on real-world NOx emissions, which only the AIR Index provides.

    “The choice of which NOx rating is used will be critical to the success or failure of the policy.  Anything based purely on laboratory figures will significantly underestimate actual emissions, and therefore the tax would not reflect the level of emissions produced during on-road urban driving. 

    “Cleaning up air quality requires the application of a tax like this not just to the latest vehicles, which are much cleaner, but also to the older Euro 6 and earlier vehicles, which are the actual primary and significant source of nitrogen oxide emissions – which is why this new tax must be based on an independent, reliable and trusted source of real-world data for new and used cars – the AIR Index.

    “Our real-world emissions results are easy to understand and easy for the public to find. What is more they identify the heroes and villains right now, helping us to tax those cars which are truly dirty, allowing policy makers to clean up the air immediately.”

    ENDS

    Media contacts

    Email   PressOfficer@allowAIR.org

    Call      +44 (0) 7815 863 968

    About the AIR Index

    Cars and vans rated for the AIR Index are tested according to the CWA 17379 standardised methodology which ensures that the results are independent, comparable and can be used as the basis for a legal framework for vehicle policies.

    The testing is carried out on at least two vehicles, sourced independently from vehicle manufacturers with portable emissions testing units (PEMS) recording actual on-road driving in towns and cities.  For a result to be considered acceptable for rating in the AIR Index there must be at least five, 10 km trips completed during three separate journeys on at least two matching vehicles in line with the CEN standard.  

    The results of the tests provide the basis to rate the vehicle according to the A-E, colour-coded scale.

    The AIR Index website includes more than 200 results of the first tests conducted with ratings A-E, but also provides a facility to check other vehicles on the road to see if they would be allowed access (or not) to the 14 German cities which have set a NOx limit of 270 mg/km under the Federal Emissions Control Act.

    Other cities across Europe are considering a similar threshold to control access and allow only the cleanest cars to enter. Car and van buyers should consider carefully the implication for a vehicle’s residual value, and their own mobility requirements, if it is unable to enter a town or city where emissions are controlled.

    About AIR

    AIR (Allow Independent Road-testing) is an independent alliance of public and private organisations, which promotes the voluntary uptake of independent on-road emissions testing.

    The alliance’s key objective is to contribute to delivering a cost-effective and timely reduction in harmful vehicle emissions in urban areas, while ensuring the lowest CO2 emissions from the global vehicle fleet.

    AIR seeks to empower citizens, industry and public authorities to take informed decisions on their mobility practices and policies by promoting full transparency on vehicle emission levels.

    Scientific Advisory Committee

    The development of the AIR Index has been led by the world’s leading academics in the fields of emissions and air quality and they make up AIR’s Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC).

    • Professor Helen ApSimon, Professor of Air Pollution Studies, Imperial College London.
    • Dr Adam Boies, Reader in the Energy Division, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge.
    • Dan Carder, Director for Alternative Fuels, Engines and Emissions, West Virginia University.
    • Dr Claire Holman, Chair, Institute of Air Quality Management.
    • Dr Guido Lanzani, Head of Air Quality Unit, Regional Environmental Agency, Lombardy Region.
    • Dr Norbert Ligterink, Senior Research Scientist, TNO.
    • Martin Lutz, Head of Sector Air Quality Management, Berlin Senate Department for Environment, Transport and Climate Protection.
    • Dr Xavier Querol, Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research, Spanish Council for Scientific Research.
    • Dr Marc Stettler, Lecturer in Transport and the Environment, Centre for Transport Studies, Imperial College London
    • Professor Martin Williams, Professor of Air Quality Research, Kings College London.

    More information about the AIR Alliance’s mission.

    Notes on European Air Quality

    The European Environment Agency provides independent information on the environment for those involved in developing, adopting, implementing and evaluating environmental policy and the general public. In its latest report, published in April 2018, updated in November 2018, the European Environment Agency stated that for particles and nitrogen dioxide, because of the widespread exceedance levels in urban areas, it is unlikely that the air quality standards for these pollutants will be met by 2020 across the EU.

    1 see https://www.eea.europa.eu/airs/2018/environment-and-health/outdoor-air-quality-urban-areas  

    Background to the AIR Index testing process

    Emissions Analytics (EA), founded by Nick Molden (Co-founder of AIR), was a pioneer in methodologies to test on-road emissions using Portable Emissions Systems (PEMS) equipment. The experience and insight gained from more than 2,000 tests conducted by EA informed the development of the CWA 17379 protocol on which the AIR Index rating is based.Paragraph

    Emissions Analytics has licensed the use of its data including the EQUA Index within the AIR Index database, enabling insight for car buyers and policy makers as to whether vehicles are allowed access (or not) to enter cities which have set a NOx limit of 270 mg/km. Further information about Allow Independent Road-testing (AIR) can be found at www.allowair.org

    The real Bill for Clean Air

    The price of just talking about Clean Air legislation is paid for in poor health and dirty urban air

    By Nick Molden, Co-Founder of AIR

    16 October 2019: Last month, Massimo Fedeli and I, as Co-founders of the AIR Alliance co-signed a letter with other leading air quality campaigners to The Times calling for a new Clean Air Bill to be introduced in the UK enshrining the right to clean air.

    We were pleased on Monday of this week to hear the UK government announce plans for an Environment Bill in the Queen’s Speech. However, the next steps are much more difficult to move from clean air rhetoric to air quality reality, and this requires investment in both resources and political commitment to make the tough calls needed to deliver real change.

    As most air pollutants are invisible, poor air quality is a cause of poor health and early death that is easy to underestimate, and easy for policy makers to ignore.  Black puffs of smoke from old bangers no longer represent the big contributors to bad air quality.  It is the imperceptible gases and particles often from very recent petrol and diesels cars that are prone to being ignored.  An Environment Bill with powerful provisions can have the effect of defining the health outcomes we all want, thereby forcing us to confront these invisible toxins.

    The biggest threat to taking urgent, effective action to improve air quality is for policy makers and the industry to focus exclusively on electric vehicles as a panacea. They are a mid- to long-term solution and simply cannot deliver a realistic short term because they are not available at scale. The blunt truth is that the European regulatory framework for pollutant emissions has failed in respect of nitrogen oxides – the Dieselgate gas – and the consequences of this must be tackled head on, now.  It means that vehicles of a variety of regulatory stages, but crucially including the latest Euro 6, cover the whole range from very clean to very dirty.  Yet, all sides cling to this failed regime as the perceived costs of doing anything else are too high. Making policy just to deal with the dirty ones is more difficult than more eye-catching policies, even if they will turn out to be more expensive for consumer and taxpayers. This is the real Bill for Clean Air.

    To unravel this problem, the first stage is the call to address the problem of the health effects of air pollution, enshrining it in law.  That will then force a solution that actually works, rather than one that is convenient and sounds good.

    Join us and make a difference to the air we all breathe

    The AIR alliance focuses on four key areas of activity:

    Insight: Deepening research and understanding about vehicle emissions, testing and applications to reducing harmful impacts.

    Coalition: Encouraging collaboration among industry players, public authorities and relevant stakeholders on key activities to improve air quality.

    Campaigning: Supporting the development and improvement of mobility infrastructure to have a positive impact on air quality.

    Empowerment: Promoting the link between vehicle choices and air quality with actionable information.

    Join us as a Supporter

    There are no costs or fees and we’ll keep you updated with the latest news about AIR and the AIR Index. Sign up with your name, email and country and that’s it. We’d love you to share information about AIR with your friends and colleagues to spread the word and help us raise awareness about solutions to this vital issue; the air we breathe.

    Join us as a Member

    There are several levels of membership and members are typically organisations, rather than individuals. Members provide funding which enables us to retain independence in our programmes including testing and research. If you’re part of a company, academic institution, NGO, public sector  or other organisation please sign up with your name, email, organisation, title and country and we’ll get in touch and find the best way to work with you.

    Euro 6 & NOx Emissions: Are Euro 6 Cars Clean?

    Are Euro 6 cars clean?

    Recent DVSA tests reveal that some Euro 6 vehicles which technically meet the legislated laboratory tests produced up to 20 times the NOx emissions limit during a track test.

    Tests carried out by the DVSA on a range of popular Euro 6 vehicles identified low and high emitters. These were in line with the results of similar tests conducted for Allow Independent Road-testing (AIR) and published in the AIR Index.

    Which Euro 6 Cars are emitting more than legislative NOx limits?

    The DVSA’s tests show that during a range of track tests, all but one car were found to be over the limit.

    Most of all the Nissan Qashqai diesel was found to be more than 17 times the legislative limit for NOx and the Renault Kadjar diesel was 13 times the same limit.

    Diesel versions of models within the following ranges were also found to be multiple times higher than emissions limits:

    • BMW 1-series
    • Hyundai Tucson
    • Jaguar F-Pace
    • Vauxhall Astra

    The only car tested by DVSA and found to be within the limits for all of the track tests was the Mercedes E-class diesel.     

    How to more accurately reflect emissions: AIR Index

    The AIR Index rates vehicles tested in urban conditions which provides comparable NOx emissions levels that more accurately reflect the contribution to urban air quality than lab-based tests.

    It has been created to inform and empower car buyers and city policy makers with the real facts about vehicle emissions when making choices about car purchase and usage.

    A simple A-E colour-coded rating, shows the difference between clean and dirty vehicles based on how much NOx comes out of a car’s tailpipe in urban driving.

    AIR Index vs Euro 6 for NOx emissions

    Tests have already found that the Euro 6 rating includes cars with a wide range of NOx emission levels. AIR Index, however, is designed to give a more accurate picture of real world NOx emissions when driving on-road.

    Nissan Qashqai

    The diesel Nissan Qashqai (Euro 6) tested by the DVSA has a provisional AIR Index ‘E’ rating, indicating extreme levels of NOx emissions (>600 mg/km) with the worst impact on air quality in towns and cities.

    Vauxhall Astra

    The diesel Vauxhall Astra (Euro 6) tested by the DVSA has a provisional AIR Index ‘C’ rating, indicating high levels of NOx emissions (168 – 270 mg/km) impacting air quality in towns and cities.

    The DVSA presented the results to car makers and invited them to improve the emissions performance of their cars. Several companies are in the process of offering solutions, but Nissan declined to do so, a decision described as ‘unacceptable’ by DVSA.

    What does this mean for air quality across Europe?

    The results of these tests raise questions about how appropriate Euro 6 is as a reliable predictor of emissions.

    City policy makers across Europe who are using, or plan to use, Euro 6 as the basis for city access will be unable to stop over-emitting cars adding to poor urban air quality.

    We are not aware of a single Clean Air Zone (CAZ) or ULEZ operating in Europe which has implemented a way to discriminate between clean and over-emitting Euro 6 vehicles.

    AIR Index can change that. We need to see policy makers use a more accurate way to stop over-emitting vehicles into ULEZ and Clear Air Zones.

    How can I contribute to reducing NOx emissions?

    The most effective way to reduce urban NOx emissions is to choose and use vehicles with the best AIR Index ratings, where ‘A’ is the cleanest. In fact, ‘E’ rated vehicles can produce more than 20 times the level of NOx emissions than an ‘A’ rated vehicle and so your vehicle choice will make a real and lasting difference to the quality of air that we breathe.

    You can search the ratings using our vehicle checker and please encourage family and friends to do the same because vehicles stay in use for a long time (up to 14 years), which means the wrong choice can have a serious impact, years after the first owner has sold it.

    DVSA Report Confirms High Risk of Low Emission Zone Failures From Over-Emitting Euro 6 Vehicles

    • Allow Independent Road-testing (AlR), the publishers of the AIR Index, the independent, standardised on-road emissions rating system, welcomes clarity from the government’s latest emissions test results published this week by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA).
    • The AIR Index ratings confirm the DVSA findings which show some 2017, Euro 6 cars, allowed unrestricted access into ULEZs, produce NOx emissions up to 20 times the legislated test cycle limits.
    • AIR is calling on policy makers in London and across Europe to make clean air zones more effective by tackling the issue of dirty Euro 6s – using ratings such as the AIR Index – to bring air quality into legal compliance as soon as possible.
    • To learn more about the AIR Index and see a rating for your vehicle go to
      www.airindex.com

    25 July 2019 – The latest findings from the DVSA’s ‘2018 Vehicle Emissions Testing Programme’1 highlight the threat to air quality improvements in ultra-low emission zones (ULEZs) from poor vehicle emissions from some Euro 6 cars.

    Tests carried out by the DVSA on a range of popular Euro 6 vehicles identified low and high emitters in line with the results of similar tests conducted for Allow Independent Road-testing (AIR) and published in the AIR Index. The DVSA tests reveal that some fully homologated vehicles meeting the legislated laboratory tests produce up to 20 times the NOx emissions limit during the WLTP track test.

    Consequently, city policy makers across Europe who are using, or plan to use, Euro 6 as the basis for city access will be unable to stop over-emitting cars adding to poor urban air quality. AIR is not aware of a single Clean Air Zone (CAZ) or ULEZ operating in Europe which has implemented a way to discriminate between clean and over-emitting Euro 6 vehicles.       

    The DVSA’s tests show that during WLTP track tests the Nissan Qashqai diesel was found to be more than 17 times the legislative limit for NOx and the Renault Kadjar diesel was 13 times the same limit. Diesel versions of models within the ranges of the BMW 1-series, Hyundai Tucson, Jaguar F-Pace, Vauxhall Astra and Volvo XC60 were all found by DVSA to be multiple times higher than emission limits for the legislated test cycle. The only car tested by DVSA and found to be within the limits was the Mercedes E-class diesel.      

    The AIR Index rates vehicles tested in urban conditions to the same standardised methodology providing comparable NOx emissions levels that more accurately reflect the contribution to urban air quality than existing tests performed in a laboratory. It has been created to inform and empower car buyers and city policy makers with the real facts about vehicle emissions when making choices about car purchase and usage. A simple A-E colour-coded rating, shows the difference between clean and dirty vehicles based on how much NOx comes out of a car’s tailpipe in urban driving.

    For example, the diesel Nissan Qashqai tested by the DVSA has a provisional AIR Index ‘E’ rating, indicating extreme levels of NOx emissions (>600 mg/km) with the worst impact on air quality in towns and cities. The diesel Vauxhall Astra tested by the DVSA has a provisional AIR Index ‘C’ rating, indicating high levels of NOx emissions (168 – 270 mg/km) impacting air quality in towns and cities. The DVSA presented the results to car makers and invited them to improve the emissions performance of their cars. Several companies are in the process of offering solutions, but Nissan declined to do so, a decision described as ‘unacceptable’ by DVSA.

    Nick Molden, Co-Founder of the AIR Index said, ‘Cities who in good faith are using or plan to use Euro 6 as the threshold for access policies will not deliver the air quality improvements expected and will not solve their breach of urban air quality in the time required. The DVSA’s latest test results confirm the importance of independent testing to provide confidence and transparency about actual emissions during on-road driving. We welcome the government’s publication of this report which aligns with the results of vehicles rated for the AIR Index, and it highlights again that not all Euro 6 cars control NOx emissions to the same degree.’

    Massimo Fedeli, Operations Director and Co-Founder of the AIR Index said, ‘Car owners, policy makers and citizens in towns and cities where air quality is breaching European limits will be disappointed by both the poor results of these tests and the reaction of those car makers who refuse to take action to remedy the over-emission of NOx from these vehicles. AIR’s mission is to help reduce the negative impacts of vehicle emissions in the short and long term. We believe that only the cleanest internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles should have free access to cities and the most effective way to determine this is through independent emissions testing. The AIR Index ratings offer cities a legal framework to improve air quality, quickly and effectively, avoiding the potential scenario of vehicle bans which would restrict mobility and penalise clean vehicles.’

    ENDS

    Media contacts

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    Call      +44 (0) 7815 863 968

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    About the AIR Index

    Cars rated for the AIR Index are tested according to the CWA 17379 standardised methodology which ensures that the results are independent, comparable and can be used as the basis for a legal framework for vehicle policies.

    The testing is carried out on at least two cars, sourced independently from vehicle manufacturers with portable emissions testing units (PEMS) recording actual on-road driving in towns and cities.  For a result to be considered acceptable for rating in the AIR Index there must be at least five, 10 km trips completed during three separate journeys on at least two matching vehicles in line with the CEN standard. 

    The results of the tests provide the basis to rate the vehicle according to the A-E, colour-coded scale.

    The AIR Index website includes more than 200 results of the first tests conducted with ratings A-E, but also provides a facility to check other vehicles on the road to see if they would be allowed access (or not) to the 14 German cities which have set a NOx limit of 270 mg/km under the Federal Emissions Control Act.

    Other cities across Europe are considering a similar threshold to control access and allow only the cleanest cars to enter. Car buyers should consider carefully the implication for a vehicle’s residual value, and their own mobility requirements, if it is unable to enter a town or city where emissions are controlled.

    About the DVSA

    The DVSA carry out driving tests, approve people to be driving instructors and MOT testers, carry out tests to make sure lorries and buses are safe to drive, carry out roadside checks on drivers and vehicles, and monitor vehicle recalls. DVSA is an executive agency, sponsored by the Department for Transport.

    1 Results of the 2018 Vehicle Emissions Testing Programme were published on 22 July 2019 and the report can be downloaded from the DVSA website.

    The DVSA report shows the results of WLTP track tests for the selected 2017 diesel cars (dark green bars). The NOx limit under laboratory conditions for Euro 6 diesel is 80 mg/km, which relates to an on-road ‘A’ in the AIR Index and is shown by the light green line. The chart shows just how far beyond the original homologation limits all but one of these vehicles emit during on-road use.

    Sources: DVSA ‘Vehicle Market Surveillance Unit Results of the 2018 Vehicle Emissions Testing programme; AIR research

    About AIR

    AIR (Allow Independent Road-testing) is an independent alliance of public and private organisations, which promotes the voluntary uptake of independent on-road emissions testing.

    The alliance’s key objective is to contribute to delivering a cost-effective and timely reduction in harmful vehicle emissions in urban areas, while ensuring the lowest CO2 emissions from the global vehicle fleet.

    AIR seeks to empower citizens, industry and public authorities to take informed decisions on their mobility practices and policies by promoting full transparency on vehicle emission levels.

    Scientific Advisory Committee

    The development of the AIR Index has been led by the world’s leading academics in the fields of emissions and air quality and they make up AIR’s Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC).

    • Professor Helen ApSimon, Professor of Air Pollution Studies, Imperial College London.
    • Dr Adam Boies, Reader in the Energy Division, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge.
    • Dan Carder, Director for Alternative Fuels, Engines and Emissions, West Virginia University.
    • Dr Claire Holman, Chair, Institute of Air Quality Management.
    • Dr Guido Lanzani, Head of Air Quality Unit, Regional Environmental Agency, Lombardy Region.
    • Dr Norbert Ligterink, Senior Research Scientist, TNO.
    • Martin Lutz, Head of Sector Air Quality Management, Berlin Senate Department for Environment, Transport and Climate Protection.
    • Dr Xavier Querol, Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research, Spanish Council for Scientific Research.
    • Dr Marc Stettler, Lecturer in Transport and the Environment, Centre for Transport Studies, Imperial College London.
    • Dr Martin Williams, Professor of Air Quality Research, Kings College London.

    Notes on European Air Quality

    The European Environment Agency provides independent information on the environment for those involved in developing, adopting, implementing and evaluating environmental policy and the general public. In its latest report, published in April 2018, updated in November 2018, the European Environment Agency stated that for particles and nitrogen dioxide, because of the widespread exceedance levels in urban areas, it is unlikely that the air quality standards for these pollutants will be met by 2020 across the EU.

    See more at: https://www.eea.europa.eu/airs/2018/environment-and-health/outdoor-air-quality-urban-areas 

    Ultra-Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ)

    The existing ULEZ policy in London is based on Euro emissions standards (minimum Euro 6 for diesel and Euro 4 for petrol) for penalty-free access, but unfortunately independent emissions testing reveals that up to half of Euro 6 diesel cars produce much higher levels of NOx from the tailpipe during city driving than during homologation laboratory tests. This means that the current ULEZ policy is inadvertently allowing in over-emitting vehicles which are contributing to the problem of poor air quality.

    AIR proposes that ULEZ policy makers in London and other cities developing their own solutions should use the independent AIR Index emissions rating for vehicles, in conjunction with Euro standards to provide the most effective reduction of harmful vehicle emissions.

    If the AIR Index was used as the basis for access, this would increase the effectiveness of the ULEZ and clean up London’s air more effectively.

    The AIR Index also provides ULEZ policy makers with a fair way to control access for vehicles of all ages, because it is based on the actual emissions produced, meaning that an older, lower emitting vehicle can still travel in the zone, whilst a newer more polluting vehicle may not. This ensures that access to towns and cities is not restricted only to people able to afford newer, and typically more expensive vehicles.

    Find out more about ULEZ and AIR Index.

    Download:

    DVSA Report Confirms High Risk of Low Emission one Failures From Over-Emitting Euro 6 Vehicles

    Download report

    Clean Air Day 2019: How to Get Involved

    Clean Air Day is the UK’s largest air pollution campaign, organised by Global Action Plan. It gives us the chance to find out more about air pollution and share how we can all take practical steps to make the air cleaner and healthier for everyone.

    This year Clean Air Day takes place on 20 June 2019 and we want you to join us in promoting what we can do to make the air cleaner.

    Why We Need Clean Air

    Citizens in many of Europe’s urban areas are exposed to concentrations of air pollutants such as Nitrogen Oxides (NOx), above the air quality standards defined in the 2016 Air Quality Directive and with little chance of achieving the 2020 targets unless dramatic action is taken.

    In the UK a nine-year-old girl’s fatal asthma attack has been linked to illegally high levels of air pollution.

    Ella Kissi-Debrah lived 25m (80ft) from London’s South Circular Road – a notorious pollution “hotspot”. She experienced three years of seizures and hospital stays before her death in February 2013. During that time, local air pollution levels breached EU legal limits. No individual death has previously been directly linked to air pollution.

    What Causes Air Pollution?

    Air pollution is a local, regional and international problem caused by the emission of pollutants which lead to negative impacts on human health and ecosystems. There are many sources of air pollution including:

    • Power stations
    • Traffic and vehicle emissions
    • Household heating
    • Agriculture
    • Industrial processes

    How to Get Involved in Clean Air Day 2019

    Find out more about air pollution and find out what you can do to make the air cleaner for all of us.

    Check your car rating using the AIR Index

    You can discover the actual emissions produced by your car using the AIR Index checker – it’s free and available now. Share the results of your AIR Index search using #CleanAirDay

    Find out at about pollution levels in your area

    You can search for pollution levels online via the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory website. It’s easy to use, simply explore the interactive emissions map, enter the postcode and see the pollution levels in that area.

    Join the AIR Alliance

    Join us in the AIR alliance and sign up as a supporter. It’s free and we’ll keep you updated with news about the latest AIR Index ratings, policy updates and events.

    More ideas from Global Action Plan

    Global Action Plan have more ideas and resources available specifically for Clean Air Day. Find out how you can get involved with the national campaign.

    How Cars are Contributing to Air Pollution

    We should be using the cleanest cars available to address this and minimise the harmful emissions, but it’s hard to make choices with so many confusing messages about vehicle emissions. Cities and governments need to create policies which will quickly improve air quality and minimise the impact on road users.

    Euro Emissions Ratings

    All vehicles on UK roads must have a Euro emissions rating which reports the results of tests carried out by car makers to simulate the levels of harmful emissions produced in certain driving conditions. Unfortunately, because they are laboratory tests they do not indicate the actual emissions produced during on-road driving in towns and cities, which can be much higher than the Euro ratings.

    Check your vehicle’s Euro Emissions rating.

    AIR Index

    The AIR Index is an international, independent and standardised rating system that reveals accurately how much pollution a vehicle produces when it is used in towns and cities.
    It has been created to inform and empower car buyers and city policy makers with the real facts about vehicle emissions when making choices about car purchase and usage. A simple A-E colour-coded rating, shows the difference between clean and dirty vehicles.

    Check your vehicle’s AIR Index rating.

    Ultra-Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ)

    The existing ULEZ policy in London is based on Euro emissions standards (minimum Euro 6 for diesel and Euro 4 for petrol) for penalty-free access, but unfortunately independent emissions testing reveals that up to half of Euro 6 diesel cars produce much higher levels of NOx from the tailpipe during city driving than during homologation laboratory tests. This means that the current ULEZ policy is inadvertently allowing in over-emitting vehicles which are contributing to the problem of poor air quality.

    AIR proposes that ULEZ policy makers in London and other cities developing their own solutions should use the independent AIR Index emissions rating for vehicles, in conjunction with Euro standards to provide the most effective reduction of harmful vehicle emissions.

    The AIR Index also provides ULEZ policy makers with a fair way to control access for vehicles of all ages, because it is based on the actual emissions produced, meaning that an older, lower emitting vehicle can still travel in the zone, whilst a newer more polluting vehicle may not. This ensures that access to towns and cities is not restricted only to people able to afford newer, and typically more expensive vehicles.

    If the AIR Index was used as the basis for access, this would increase the effectiveness of the ULEZ and clean up London’s air more effectively.

    Find out more about ULEZ and AIR Index.

    What we’re doing to tackle Air Pollution

    The AIR Index is a game changer.

    It gives at-a-glance information on actual vehicle emissions in towns and cities. It compiles the results of the most independent, consistent and thorough tests ever carried out to:

    • Provide car buyers with the answers they need to make the right purchasing choices
    • Make the industry accountable to produce cleaner cars
    • Give cities and policy makers the accurate data to create fair policies

    The AIR Index is published by us, the AIR Alliance, a global not-for-profit organisation and is an alliance of scientists, health regulatory experts, people and organisations committed to addressing harmful emissions from vehicles.

    Join us in the AIR alliance and sign up as a supporter. It’s free and we’ll keep you updated with news about the latest AIR Index ratings, policy updates and events.