The Volkswagen scandal, which surfaced last month and involved the car manufacturer cheating on emission standards with some of their best selling models by overstating their performance levels, has shaken the automobile industry to its core.
As a result of the scandal, industry experts, including the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) (which broke the scandal) are now considering whether the process whereby emission standards are measured, applied and reported needs to be reinvented.
Although US standards are tougher than the more widely acceptable Euro standards (Pakistan adheres to the Euro 2 standards for passenger vehicles), expert claim that car manufacturers conduct the tests themselves and then report them to regulators.
This has resulted in cars undergoing emission tests with highly selective parameters that optimise performance. These include removing accessories such as door mirrors, sound systems and air-conditioners to reduce weight and increase power, efficiency and performance.
The crisis has also shown that diesel may not be the clean fuel it is purported to be, putting the future of its use in passenger cars into question. Diesel’s much celebrated efficiency comes from burning fuel at a higher temperature, which results in less generation of carbon dioxide, but has other consequences. The process uses more nitrogen to create oxides collectively known as NOX which are harmful to plants and people than smog. It is here that VW cheated by installing software that turned on NOX controlling technology under specific conditions answer showed reduced emissions.
Although VW has recalled nearly 500,000 cars in the US and may have to pay up to $87 billion in fines and lawsuits, the question of regulating emissions standards will linger. linger. Experts claim that a more robust regime of tests coupled with research into alternative NOX reducing techniques may be the only way for a greener, cleaner future.
By Tariq Zaid Khan