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EPA To Overhaul Emissions Testing In the Wake of VW Cheating
New submitter kheldan writes with this snippet from The Consumerist: A week after ordering Volkswagen to recall 500,000 vehicles that contain "defeat devices" designed to cheat emissions tests, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it would overhaul its compliance processes to ensure vehicles meet standards not only in controlled environments but in real-world driving conditions, and adds What may be the story-behind-the-story here, are the two Elephants in the Room: One, how many other automakers in the world have been 'gaming' the system like German automakers apparently have been all along, and Two, are these changes to the certification process at the USEPA going to 'trickle down' to the state and local levels, affecting routine emissions testing of individual vehicles? Questions peripheral to these may include: How much is this going to affect new vehicle prices in the future, and how much is this going to affect the fair market value of used vehicles?
First let me say that this change is urgently needed.
But, it's unlikely that automakers who build gasoline cars are cheating like VW did. It's especially difficult to clean NOx from diesel engine exhaust because unlike gasoline engines, the exhaust contains lots of extra oxygen. Diesels need special NOx-cleaning devices which add cost and weight, and can seriously limit performance in some situations. Gasoline engines just need minor modifications to the engine computer software and the catalytic converter to clean NOx, so there's very little need to cheat.
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It's especially difficult to clean NOx from diesel engine exhaust because unlike gasoline engines, the exhaust contains lots of extra oxygen. Diesels need special NOx-cleaning devices which add cost and weight, and can seriously limit performance in some situations.
No. It is no longer especially difficult because VW and other diesel makers have already solved this problem. Every cheating VW diesel on the road can have low polluting exhaust. The hardware and software is there, already installed and operating. That is how they pass emissions tests, the software enables all the emissions controls. How the software cheats is to turn off the emission controls if it looks like someone is actually driving.
The fix is a simple software patch to stop turning off the emissions controls.
The downside is that performance and mileage will be reduced.
Yeah, the problem is they don't want to do that, because it's "unfair" to people who have old, poorly-maintained cars, because supposedly these cars are either "classics" or they're too poor to afford newer cars. Basically, cars past a certain age are "grandfathered".
The Leaf seems like a nice car but let's not kid ourselves here, it's not a long trip vehicle. We currently have a Cruze and a CR-V which we also have a 6'x8' trailer for and I think a Leaf could replace the Cruze, because while the CR-V doesn't get great mileage I would only drive it if I had to haul something or drive a long distance and the money saved driving around town would be significant.
I imagine many people bought those vehicles because they wanted one that was better for the environment.
Lets see how many people bring their VW in to have the ECU s/w updated. I mean without an EPA threat to brin them in or else. I'll bet that most people will weigh a little higher NOx emmissions against driving a gutless pig and not find time to get it in to the shop.
Have gnu, will travel.
Right, but that of course is the problem...
Until we're willing to make those hard choices, this is all just noise...
Yes you can go after the large car companies. That should be easy. You can never stop people from installing after market equipment that games the system. You will never have a perfect system, so stop being so idealistic. I'd settle for a system that stops the vast majority of abuse.
I know, it might be unpopular, but consider this explanation: what if that mode was designed to be turned on when car detects running in a badly ventilated area like indoors or in a tunnel and such? Just to avoid becoming a health hazard. And nobody realized that such mode would interfere with EPA tests. And VW own testers were simply replicating EPA testing rig to insure that ther testing is the same, while having no clue how engine works. While it is still probable, that someone in VW realized that there is a problem, they kept their mouth shut for various reasons. But generally this explanation does not require any wide conspiracy or anything.
Read about that more than a decade ago in Car and Driver. What ever happened to that idea... Sounded plausible. Any car that failed would get flagged. If the car was a "classic" or "vintage" it was exempt. Otherwise you had to get it fixed. Seemed simple.
How come it takes TWO people working full-time jobs to get a lower standard of living than my parents had in the 1970s with just my Dad working, despite all this "progress" and "productivity" we supposedly have?
Because we decided everyone should have these things, such as education, housing, and health care and then we implemented policies to make those things accessible. Instead, they made them more expensive. Oops.
And notice that the developing world isn't having this trouble.
Just buy a Tesla already
Battery based cars tend to do very poorly in very cold countries.
Om, nomnomnom...
because most people can't afford to keep cars of that age on the road at all
If we assume the average new car is $20,000 today, it works out to close to $450/month over four years. I don't know too many people with older cars that are having to spend anywhere near that much on maintenance.
Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
Don't live in a cold country.
That's great, I'll post my paypal and you can deposit 500k so I can change that.
Om, nomnomnom...
Agree. The 1/100k car enthusiast who rips apart his car and replaces all the computers inside isn't really the source of our problems. You might as well outlaw wrenches if you want to stop that sort of thing.