Passenger Car Emissions and Consumption in Real Driving Conditions from the Point of View of Automobile Clubs

The new exhaust emission standards Euro 6d temp and Euro 6d pose big challenges for car manufacturers. The vehicles tested by the automobile clubs in real driving conditions easily fulfil these stringent limit values. A simplified comparison is drawn with electric vehicles which show that the electricity generated in German power plants exceeds the measured emissions of Euro 6d temp and Euro 6d vehicles in terms of NOx and particulate matter.When comparing the greenhouse gas CO2, electric cars perform better than cars with combustion engines due to their high efficiency.Green NCAP was introduced to provide an evaluation of the environmental characteristics of passenger cars. Analogously to Euro NCAP, vehicles are given a rating of up to 5 stars, which is comprised of a Clean Air Index and an Emissions Efficiency Index.It is essential to adopt a holistic CO2 approach to vehicles that takes account of the individual stages of the life cycle: manufacture, fuel/energy provision, utilization and disposal. To this end a Life Cycle Analysis Tool was developed to examine the climate impact of various drives and fuel types.