A public hearing organised by the European Parliament's Environment, Public Health and Food Safety committee has heard that the EU is behind the US in enforcing stricter vehicles emissions.
The hearing followed the recent narrow adoption of the ‘Real Driving Emissions’ (RDE) package in early February.
Researchers told attendees that recent advances in technology would allow the EU to pursue more ambitious emissions limits than it currently does, explaining that technologies available in the US allowed the country to set stricter conformity standards.
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MEPs Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy from the ALDE group and Bas Eickhout from the Greens/EFA group said they wanted to know why these technologies had not been adopted in the EU.
The two Dutch deputies suggested that there were now so many exemptions allowed under the RDE procedure that they had rendered the ‘Real’ in ‘R’ redundant. They suggested that the EU should instead copy the American model.
Speaking for the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, Secretary General Erik Jonnaert, said that fundamental differences in approach between the two systems meant they were not comparable. He explained that in the US, limits are set by fleet and not per vehicle.
He reiterated the industry’s commitment to the new RDE as well as the expected Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicles Test Procedures (WLTP) procedure, but reminded the hearing that some flexibility was necessary, as no testing method is 100 per cent accurate.