Leak shows Commission giving inside information to car lobby on new emissions tests
As the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry into the dieselgate scandali begins its work in Brussels, a leaked lobbying document from the European car manufacturers' lobby, ACEA (European Automobile Manufacturers' Association), reveals a sophisticated, multi-faceted behind-the-scenes lobbying strategy aimed at weakening new emissions tests.
Last
September's dieselgate scandal exposed how car manufacturers were
meeting legal NOx emissions limits in laboratory tests, but massively exceeding them
on the road (by up to 40 times in the case of Volkswagen). While this
was news to the general public, the European Commission had known
manufacturers were vastly exceeding limits back in 2011
and was designing new on-the-road tests, or 'Real Driving Emissions'
(RDE) tests, to tackle the problem in diesel cars. But as the leak
shows, ACEA and its members had other plans. Their intention: to weaken
and delay the new tests, scheduled to be finalised in 2015 and
introduced in 2017, which could prevent thousands of premature deaths
every year but would most certainly dent profits if implemented in full.
September's dieselgate scandal exposed how car manufacturers were
meeting legal NOx emissions limits in laboratory tests, but massively exceeding them
on the road (by up to 40 times in the case of Volkswagen). While this
was news to the general public, the European Commission had known
manufacturers were vastly exceeding limits back in 2011
and was designing new on-the-road tests, or 'Real Driving Emissions'
(RDE) tests, to tackle the problem in diesel cars. But as the leak
shows, ACEA and its members had other plans. Their intention: to weaken
and delay the new tests, scheduled to be finalised in 2015 and
introduced in 2017, which could prevent thousands of premature deaths
every year but would most certainly dent profits if implemented in full.
