We all know that the results of the official EU fuel efficiency and emissions tests are a bit on the optimistic side, but now it appears that carmakers have been deliberately manipulating the tests to their advantage.
A new report from sustainable transport campaigners Transport & Environment (T&E) has found that manufacturers resort to a number of tricks in order to maximise the fuel efficiency of their vehicles, such as overinflating tyres, disconnecting the alternator and taping over panel gaps.
T&E claims that by exploiting loopholes in the EU test regime, manufacturers can lower their cars' official fuel consumption and CO2 emissions figures by as much as 23 per cent.
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Manufacturers are mandated by EU law to publish the results of the EU emissions and fuel economy tests and are not allowed to publish any other figures. However, discrepancies between the results of these tests and those achieved under real-world driving conditions have been criticised since their introduction.
T&E believes that the loopholes in the current system must be closed. Greg Archer, clean vehicles manager at T&E, said: "This new evidence shows that carmakers in Europe are cheating their own customers by manipulating official tests, which leads to thousands of euros of additional fuel costs for drivers.
"They are also cheating legislators, as EU laws intended to reduce CO2 emissions from cars and vans are only being met in the laboratory, but not on the road.
"The only way to rebuild this trust is by closing loopholes in the current test procedures."
Image: T&E
