Vehicle Testing
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Well, that's awkward. At its annual media briefing on Wednesday, Volkswagen Group executives said the costs of meeting new emission tests in the EU, lowering carbon emissions globally, and launching multiple new electric models would eat into the company's profits. With the company's diesels in disfavor even in Europe and unlikely to reappear in North America, VW brand chief Herbert Diess said the costs of cutting carbon emissions "pose the greatest challenge for us as a company" through 2020. DON'T MISS: VW Group has nailed down $25 billion of batteries for electric cars, it said today The...
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Preventing the next Dieselgate: EU can now oversee, overrule new-car approval by member countries
With the exception of California's longstanding ability to set its own tougher emission standards, any car legal to sell in one state of the U.S. is legal to sell in all of them. And aside from a handful of differences—daytime running lights, speedometers marked in km/h—Canadian-market...
John Voelcker -
Jaguar I-Pace electric car testing: 200 cars, 1.5 million miles, and counting
Jaguar’s upcoming first entry into electric vehicles is undergoing final validation in Los Angeles, a year after the British brand revealed the I-Pace Concept at the 2016 Los Angeles Auto Show. Jaguar wrapped the new I-Pace in a pseudo-mule livery and plastered a hashtag on its side as...
Mark Stevenson -
Those fuel-efficient diesels? Actually worse on lifetime CO2, study says
Diesel-powered cars have enjoyed a comfortable market share in Europe for decades, but their decline in popularity continues following numerous diesel-emission cheating scandals and regulatory crackdowns. As if diesel cars hadn't already had enough negative press, a new study says "fuel-efficient"...
Sean Szymkowski -
Europe's tougher new emissions, fuel-economy tests should be closer to real-world results
Fuel-economy ratings for cars sold in Europe have long been wildly unrealistic, sometimes more than 30 percent more optimistic than real-world consumption figures. Today, that will change. As of September 1, two new and more stringent testing regimes are to be used for certifying new vehicles going...
John Voelcker -
Self-driving Chevy Bolt EV electric test cars to be deployed
It's widely acknowledged that most, if not all, of the autonomous vehicles expected to reach our roads in volume will be electric cars. Without the complexity of a combustion engine and transmission that must be electromechanically controlled, the task of automating the driving of a vehicle is...
John Voelcker -
The Volkswagen diesel scandal left lasting imprints on the entire automotive industry, and may have changed the way regulators look at vehicles using the fuel forever. That's true not just in the United States, but elsewhere as well. The European Union is now increasing its efforts to make sure a scandal like Volkswagen's can never happen again. EU ministers have agreed to a new draft of rules and regulations for approving cars in the countries that make up the trade bloc; they give the European Commission more power in such circumstances. DON'T MISS: Settlement for Audi, Porsche, VW...
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Real-world diesel emission study shows latest standards must be applied to heavy trucks
When a major lobbying group issues a statement replying to an academic study the same day that study first hits the media, you know it's major. On Monday, the Diesel Technology Forum responded to an article in Nature with a statement that supported "improved real-world testing" of diesel emissions...
John Voelcker -
EPA's Ann Arbor test lab threatened; emission tests in the balance
The 436 scientists who spend their days testing new vehicles and enforcing environmental rules at the National Fuel Emissions Lab in Ann Arbor, Michigan, face a very uncertain future. The lab sits in the crosshairs of President Trump's proposed budget, which eliminates 99 percent of its funding, as...
Zach Bowman -
Newest, cleanest diesels in Europe can still be very dirty: analysis
It has become increasingly more evident that carmakers must take aggressive steps to ensure that diesel cars and light trucks meet current environmental regulations. Tests done by Emissions Analytics found that the majority of new diesel-powered cars sold in Europe do not meet the Euro 6 emission...
Green Car Reports -
Trump budget slashes EPA emission testing, hits makers with higher fees
The prospect of ongoing operations as usual continues to darken for the Environmental Protection Agency. According to a detailed internal budget document published in the The Washington Post, the Trump administration wants to eliminate virtually all federal funding for the agency’s vehicle...
Green Car Reports -
Europe's Gas-Mileage Test Results Move Further Away From Reality: Report
Your mileage may vary, as the saying goes. But it turns out that real-world fuel efficiency in European cars varies considerably more from official ratings than in the U.S. And some car brands are so far off from their ratings that a buyer may only get two-thirds of the published fuel efficiency...
John Voelcker -
It's one of the most common questions asked of any new car: "So what kind of gas mileage does it get?" The answer most often comes from the car's gas-mileage readout on the dashboard, generally specified to the tenths of a mile per gallon. But as Edmunds determined, those readings vary considerably in accuracy. 5 percent too high A recent article in The Detroit News notes that the readouts are about 5 percent too optimistic in most vehicles. But some are worse than others: Edmunds tested the old 2010 Ford Escape Hybrid and found its digital reading to be 19 percent overstated. Similarly, a...
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Could You Storm-Chase In A 2012 Chevy Cruze? Yes, But...
Be honest: unless you’re a storm chaser, the chances are you don’t shop for a new car based on its capabilities in heavy storms. But as part of its latest advertising efforts to promote the 2012 Chevrolet Cruze, General Motors wants you to know that the compact sedan can take everything...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Plug-in Army Tanks? Coming To A Battlefield Near You
Think of plug-in hybrids and you’ll probably think of cars like the 2012 Chevrolet Volt or 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid. But plug-in hybrid army tanks? They might just be closer than you think. Enter the U.S. Army, and its latest prototype test vehicle, a fully-amored plug-in vehicle...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield