Makers can’t meet Govt’s new targets for diesels

NO car on sale today is capable of escaping the new diesel taxes, Auto Express can reveal. That’s despite Chancellor Phillip Hammond announcing in his Autumn Budget last year that only models not meeting the “latest” standards would be subject to tax increases.

When full details of the Budget were published, those “latest” standards transpired to be a set of limits known as ‘RDE2’ – or real driving emissions, step 2, part of Euro 6d standards. RDE2 stipulates cars must emit no more than 80mg/km of nitrogen oxides (NOX).

But as RDE2 doesn’t have to be met by car makers until January 2020 – and has yet to be fully signed off – none of the 33 manufacturers we surveyed has a model yet certified to the limits. PSA brands Peugeot, DS and Citroen said some of their cars “achieved NOX conformity factors below 1.5” (RDE2 allows an error margin of 50 per cent to account for testing equipment inaccuracies), but added: “Groupe PSA did not want to take any risk of certifying to RDE2 without taking into account any amendments to the testing criteria.”

Mercedes, meanwhile, pointed out that the E 220 d produced just 41mg/km of NOX when tested by a German car magazine using the latest test equipment.

The Treasury told Auto Express: “Diesel vehicles for which the manufacturers have not received RDE2 (Euro 6D) certification are liable for the diesel supplements.”