A new report by the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, AEA Ricardo and IHS Global Insight that was commissioned by the European Commission indicates that automakers have found loopholes in the CO2 test to make their cars appear cleaner than they actually are. The study compared average CO2 emissions between 2002 and 2010 and looked at the causes of those drops.

The study found that the average emissions in 2000 were 167.2g/km of CO2 and 140.4g/km of CO2 in 2010 for an average reduction of 26.8g/km of CO2. However, it also found that 9.1g/km of CO2 of this reduction could be attributed to changes in testing.

"This means that vehicles do not deliver end-users the promised fuel cost reductions, leading to consumer misinformation," said the report.

The European Commission plans to revise the testing law in 2016 before average CO2 emissions are supposed to be reduced to 95g/km of CO2 in Europe by 2020. However, some of the loopholes will likely remain. 

The proposed solution would have the testing be done after the cars entered service. That would mean that the cars would already be in production when tested and would not give automakers the opportunity to change cars after they have been tested. This is the way that emissions testing is done in the United States. The German auto industry association, VDA, says that it is open to the change. 

Source: Automotive News Europe