Fuel consumption and emissions are increasingly decisive factors when choosing a car. From January, manufacturers are required to provide data measured using the new Wltp type-approval tests, which are more realistic and transparent.
In September 2017 came the first major change. Around a year ago, a new European type-approval procedure came into force for the first time, designed to make the type-approval data for all cars more transparent. Behind the acronym Wltp (Worldwide harmonized light vehicles test procedure) lies a new test that measures fuel consumption and emissions under more stringent conditions and, above all, does so by taking into account more real-world use, thanks to laboratory measurements combined with on-road testing. The evolution compared to the previous Nedc test, introduced in the 1980s, is fundamental to preventing a repeat of the scandals of the past. From 1 January 2019, all manufacturers will be required to make the new data produced by the Wltp tests publicly available.
The result? For car manufacturers, in order to stay below the CO2 limit values set by the European Union (and to avoid the very heavy penalties envisaged), it is an incentive to offer increasingly sustainable and innovative models, with extensive use of new powertrains, such as hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric. On the other hand, private individuals and businesses (especially those responsible for large fleets) now have better and more transparent tools to make choices based on real data on fuel consumption and pollutant emissions from vehicles. Have the new Wltp tests changed the criteria by which cars are chosen? A recent study conducted by the Corporate Vehicle Observatory, the mobility and market trends research centre created by Arval in 2002, would suggest they have. The research, which covers 15 countries and represents a neutral platform on the topic of corporate mobility, has gathered data showing that companies expect significant impacts from the introduction of the new type-approval cycle and that, in part, they have already observed them.
According to the European study, it is above all corporate fleet managers in the rest of Europe who have paid the greatest attention to the new Wltp tests; there, the proportion of fleet managers reporting that they have recorded impacts as a result of the new tests stands at 18.2 per cent, compared with 7.2 per cent recorded in Italy. That a change is under way in mobility patterns is clear. The change is being driven above all by the arrival of powertrains that offer an alternative to traditional diesel and petrol. Being able to determine the realistic fuel consumption and exhaust emissions of vehicles is producing a gradual transformation in the criteria used to choose one model over another. Many of those surveyed in the Arval research – in this case all fleet managers – believe that this new test will have an impact on corporate fleet management policy.
The data produced by the research show that for companies – and in time the same will apply to consumers – CO2 and so-called fine dust or particulate matter, two of the pollutants most responsible for the greenhouse effect and air quality, are the emissions most taken into consideration in company car policies by Italian businesses. In third place is NOx, considered by 16 per cent of Italian companies as an important factor in choosing a car. On this issue, EU regulation (443/2009) sets manufacturers important targets for reducing CO2 and NOx emissions by 2021 for all newly type-approved vehicles (95 g/km for CO2 and 80 g/km for NOx), an important step towards increasingly sustainable mobility.
But what are the pollutants measured by the new Wltp type-approval tests that are present in engine combustion processes, and what effect do they have?