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Old 7th October 2018, 10:16   #1
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Car sales in Europe fall significantly due to new emission test

Last year, the European Union introduced on-road emission testing of new cars, while existing models were allowed to be made compliant by September 2018. According to a media report this has resulted in sales of some models being halted with overall car sales falling by over 23% in Western Europe.

In the month of August, car dealers gave discounts to sell off excess inventory before the new rules came into force. Sales figures for the month of September 2018 fell to 1.05 million units from 1.36 million units a year earlier. Volkswagen group sales figures fell by 50%, while Renault dropped 28.7% and Fiat Chrysler fell by 32.1% across Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Spain. Models worst hit include VW’s Golf and Touran, Renault’s Espace and Kadjar, Nisan’s Qashqai and FCA’s Tipo and Renegade. Germany saw the highest drop in total car sales at 30.5% followed by Italy at 25.4%. In Britain, car sales dropped by 20.5% and France registered a drop of 12.8%.

The Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicle Test (WLTP) came into force on September 1, halting sales of models not yet re-certified to meet new pollution regulations. While the new tests will not change the existing limits under Euro 6 norms, they make use of a portable emission measuring device attached to the vehicles. Results of this test should match with the laboratory testing for the cars to be allowed to be sold.

Car sales in Europe fall significantly due to new emission test-emissiontest.jpeg

Source: Reuters

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Last edited by blackwasp : 7th October 2018 at 10:21.
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Old 7th October 2018, 12:04   #2
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Re: Car sales in Europe fall significantly due to new emission test

Allow me to state my oft repeated view. There are two parts to car pollution - (1) quality & composition of gaseous exhaust; and (2) volume of gaseous exhaust. Most if not all the rules are aimed at item #1. Almost nothing at item #2. At the risk of being virtually bludgeoned I ask why do we need a personal mobility device that goes any faster than a given speed - pick a number between 50 and 80 kmph and which generates anything over about 65 bhp. It is our desire for ego, status, vroom-vroom, masculine power and such other needs that are fulfilled with any bhp above 65. Bigger cars give off greater volume of gases not to mention consume more fuel. Unpopular view to put across. With my two big cars I am more guilty than most. It is a mind set issue. Going back 25 years we had two Padminis with their 44 bhp - 1100cc engine. They did just fine as far as our real world need for speed or range was concerned.
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Old 7th October 2018, 12:25   #3
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Re: Car sales in Europe fall significantly due to new emission test

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Originally Posted by V.Narayan View Post
Allow me to state my oft repeated view. There are two parts to car pollution - (1) quality & composition of gaseous exhaust; and (2) volume of gaseous exhaust. Most if not all the rules are aimed at item #1. Almost nothing at item #2. At the risk of being virtually bludgeoned I ask why do we need a personal mobility device that goes any faster than a given speed - pick a number between 50 and 80 kmph and which generates anything over about 65 bhp. It is our desire for ego, status, vroom-vroom, masculine power and such other needs that are fulfilled with any bhp above 65. Bigger cars give off greater volume of gases not to mention consume more fuel. Unpopular view to put across. With my two big cars I am more guilty than most. It is a mind set issue. Going back 25 years we had two Padminis with their 44 bhp - 1100cc engine. They did just fine as far as our real world need for speed or range was concerned.
Why only apply this logic to just cars? A 1000sqft apartment is enough. Mansions are just ego. So lets ban mansions.
And business class air travel. After all per person emission for business class is far more, right?
If #2 starts getting regulated, its a slippery slope. #2 is controlled through awareness and higher taxes. For example carbon tax on higher capacity engines can be as much as 300 EURO higher in many countries per year

Last edited by tsk1979 : 7th October 2018 at 13:14.
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Old 7th October 2018, 14:06   #4
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Re: Car sales in Europe fall significantly due to new emission test

This is more like a temporary blip till all models are re-certified according to WLTP standards. Although, I wonder why manufacturers could not get it done in time. VAG seems to have been particularly lazy, which has taken popular models (and variants) off the market.

Increase in CO2 values has caused car prices to rise here in Finland from 1st Sept 2018. However, the tax rates were actually lowered from 1st Jan 2018 (may be in anticipation of WLTP), and will once again be lowered from 1st Jan 2019. In the end, the same car will cost about the same in Jan 2019 as it did in Dec 2017, even with much higher CO2 value. WLTP or NEDC figures do not affect the actual real world mileage, so I guess nothing will really change on the ground.

For my Karoq, the claimed fuel consumption has gone up from about 4.4L/100km under NEDC to 6.0L/100km now under WLTP. This makes me happy as I had no hope of ever achieving 4.5L/100km, but quite consistently do better than 6.0L/100km

Last edited by StarrySky : 7th October 2018 at 14:34.
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Old 8th October 2018, 10:09   #5
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Re: Car sales in Europe fall significantly due to new emission test

Those are shockingly steep drops! Surprised that the industry wasn't better prepared for this. Germany in particular is key - it has also experienced a large decline in diesels.

If diesels are becoming a bad word in the country that makes the best of them, you know diesel engines don't have a bright future. I think we're seeing diesels at their peak right now. Some manufacturers have already announced that they are slowing down or stopping investments in diesels (e.g. Volvo). As a fan of big turbo-diesel engines, I am quite sad.
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Old 8th October 2018, 10:40   #6
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Re: Car sales in Europe fall significantly due to new emission test

Volkswagen not only destroyed the diesel but decimated european sales. The EC tests were easily fudged. The WLTP tests are long and require many iterations. Some cars are ready but the testing is taking a long time due to the long queue. My cousin wants to trade his dirty diesel Cayenne in for the revised Macan but they are not available until it completes the WLTP test.

I guess the reason why one sees prototypes of Golfs/Toyota C-HR's in Bangalore are part of this process. They must be redesigning and testing engine maps before the final WLTP tests.

Last edited by Rudra Sen : 8th October 2018 at 15:41. Reason: typo edited
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Old 8th October 2018, 12:39   #7
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Re: Car sales in Europe fall significantly due to new emission test

In countries such as the Netherlands we have an additional factor. We have a special car tax that is based on how much pollution a car produces. Due to these new ways of measuring all of them are going up. So most cars end up in significant higher tax brackets. Whereas nothing has changed in terms of real emissions of course.

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Old 8th October 2018, 13:27   #8
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Re: Car sales in Europe fall significantly due to new emission test

Quote:
Originally Posted by V.Narayan View Post
Allow me to state my oft repeated view. There are two parts to car pollution - (1) quality & composition of gaseous exhaust; and (2) volume of gaseous exhaust. Most if not all the rules are aimed at item #1. Almost nothing at item #2. At the risk of being virtually bludgeoned I ask why do we need a personal mobility device that goes any faster than a given speed - pick a number between 50 and 80 kmph and which generates anything over about 65 bhp. It is our desire for ego, status, vroom-vroom, masculine power and such other needs that are fulfilled with any bhp above 65. Bigger cars give off greater volume of gases not to mention consume more fuel. Unpopular view to put across. With my two big cars I am more guilty than most. It is a mind set issue. Going back 25 years we had two Padminis with their 44 bhp - 1100cc engine. They did just fine as far as our real world need for speed or range was concerned.
Ciaz has heard your request and they have introduced a continuous Beep if you drive over 120 kmph...Ouch
Certainly an unpopular view to control pollution AND accidents.
Lets go Electric instead. I don't mind having an ugly looking solar panel as my roof or 5 or 6 mini windmills out in the front that can charge the battery ...but please don't decrease the speeds.
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Old 8th October 2018, 14:26   #9
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Re: Car sales in Europe fall significantly due to new emission test

Quote:
Originally Posted by GTO View Post
--
If diesels are becoming a bad word in the country that makes the best of them, you know diesel engines don't have a bright future---. As a fan of big turbo-diesel engines, I am quite sad.
BMW committed to diesel.

Quote:
the company had been successful in developing cleaner diesel powertrains and criticised European politicians for panning the fuel on the back of the Volkswagen Group diesel emissions scandal.
Quote:
We have a spiral in Europe where every politician sees only one solution – diesel bashing. From a CO2 and customer perspective, a modern diesel is a very good solution. Especially for heavy, high-performing cars

Quote:
A very optimistic scenario says 30 per cent of BMWs will be pure electric or plug-in hybrids and seven per cent will be combustion. If you assume that, from this 30 per cent, half of them are plug-in hybrids – I have 85 per cent in my portfolio in 2030 with a combustion engine
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Old 8th October 2018, 18:01   #10
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Re: Car sales in Europe fall significantly due to new emission test

Quote:
Originally Posted by GTO View Post
If diesels are becoming a bad word in the country that makes the best of them, you know diesel engines don't have a bright future. I think we're seeing diesels at their peak right now. Some manufacturers have already announced that they are slowing down or stopping investments in diesels (e.g. Volvo). As a fan of big turbo-diesel engines, I am quite sad.
Quote:
Originally Posted by volkman10 View Post
BMW committed to diesel.
At the same time Porsche killed the Diesel engine. Granted, it was driven more because of Volkswagen's diesel scandal, but its still a step towards electric and petrol engines only.
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Old 5th April 2019, 10:13   #11
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Re: Car sales in Europe fall significantly due to new emission test

Only 12 of the top 50 bestselling brands in Europe improved their average emissions in 2018. As the 95 g/km target gets closer, the car makers seem to go backwards.

Car sales in Europe fall significantly due to new emission test-2.jpg


Car sales in Europe fall significantly due to new emission test-1.jpg
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Old 6th April 2019, 11:56   #12
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Re: Car sales in Europe fall significantly due to new emission test

Germany is seeing a relative rise in diesel car numbers in Q1 ‘19 compared to 2018. I wouldn’t call it a turn-around story (yet!) but an interesting short-term trend for sure. The public debate on Diesel recently saw some unexpected emission test results, by an independent party, confirming real world NOx readings from a Diesel engine with contemporary emission tech ( a LR discovery or RR sport, if I recall correctly ) was significantly lower than predicted. On the other hand a small Diesel engine from a hatchback registered numbers that were relatively worse
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