nitrogen oxides

Rome joins European ban-diesel bandwagon after German court ruling
John Voelcker March 8, 2018

First Paris, then a pair of German cities, and now the Eternal City. Two weeks ago, the mayor of Rome announced on her Facebook page that the city would ban diesel cars altogether by 2024. It's not clear whether the ban applies solely to the older, most-polluting diesels as it does already in Paris, or to any vehicle with a diesel engine. CHECK OUT: German court rules cities may ban older diesel vehicles A court ruling issued February 26 in Germany had been widely awaited as a sign of how far cities could go in aggressively attacking unhealthy air within their municipal limits. The German...
German court rules cities may ban older diesel vehicles to cut air pollution
That huge intake of breath you may have heard from across the Atlantic Ocean was the sound of German carmakers gasping at a court decision handed down on Tuesday. After a week's delay in issuing its ruling, a German court decided that individual cities in the country may ban vehicles with diesel...
John Voelcker February 27, 2018
European commissioner warns against cities' diesel bans, fears market collapse
The warning came even before last week's plans for updates to 9 million European diesel cars by German luxury makers Audi and Mercedes-Benz were announced. In a letter sent to the transport ministers of European Union countries, EU industry commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska warned that proposed bans...
John Voelcker July 27, 2017

Combustion engines: high emissions from short commutes a huge challenge
Drivers in the U.S. have longer commutes than those in Europe and Asia, on average. In the U.K., short commutes in vehicles with combustion engines—whether gasoline or diesel—pose particularly tough emission problems. That's because the exhaust aftertreatment systems have to warm up...
John Voelcker July 11, 2017
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 May 17, 2017
What does VW's diesel-pollution mitigation program actually do?
Last month's settlement proposal to resolve the claims of more than 450,000 owners of VW and Audi 2.0-liter diesel cars contains quite a few separate requirements in its hundreds of pages. As well as buybacks of the affected cars and separate cash payments to owners, it requires Volkswagen to set...
John Voelcker July 15, 2016
European fix for VW diesels complies with law, but real-world emissions still too high
John Voelcker April 20, 2016

Updates to the millions of Volkswagen TDI diesel cars that turned out not to meet European emission regulations were supposed to be well underway by now. German authorities had signed off on the modifications—software updates and for one group of engines, a new plastic insert to alter incoming airflow—and VW began the updates with its Amarok pickup truck. But those updates have stalled, amidst reports that while the cars comply with European test procedures, they continue to emit much higher volumes of nitrogen oxides than legally permitted when operating in real-world conditions...
EU Regulators Dilute New Emission Rules To Allow 2.1 Times The Legal Limits Until 2020
The official press release from the European Union sounds as though Wednesday's vote on new emission-testing rules makes it tougher for automakers to cheat as Volkswagen admitted doing with its 2.0-liter diesel engines. Indeed, the new rules add on-road tests of emissions in real-world driving to...
John Voelcker October 30, 2015

Dutch Scientists Develop Concrete That Cleans The Air
When it comes to air pollution, most attempts to reduce it look at the source rather than after-treatment. Making new cars cleaner and more efficient is only part of the solution; finding ways to treat the pollution coming out of older cars is just as important and there are already millions of...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran July 8, 2010