The Real Urban Emissions (TRUE) Initiative issued a report on real world emissions from vehicles in Paris LAST week. MAG is seeking to discuss the research with the report authors and has expressed concern regarding the accuracy of the report conclusions.
The headline conclusions outlined in the report with respect to motorcycles were:
- L-category vehicle fuel-specific emissions (grams per kilogram of fuel consumed) are up to 11.1 times higher for CO emissions and 6.1 times higher for NOX emissions compared to average petrol passenger car emissions.
- While fuel-specific emissions of CO and NOX from L-category vehicles have declined with the implementation of more stringent Euro standards, they have trailed behind passenger cars, and L-category standards only go up to Euro 4.
- Considering L-category vehicles only certified to current Euro 4 standards, CO emissions are almost 10 times those of both Euro 6 diesel and petrol cars, and NOX emissions are three times those of Euro 6 petrol cars.
The research was funded by the FIA Foundation. Sheila Watson, Deputy Director of the FIA Foundation, said: ‘[the report] shows that two- and three-wheelers are neither the answer to urban air quality nor traffic issues.’
MAG’s Director of Campaigns & Political Engagement stated “I have approached the report authors asking for the opportunity to discuss and examine their data. Having read the full report, I have concerns that the conclusions reached from such a small sample of motorcycles and the fact that there was a very high failure rate in EDAR readings raises questions about the validity of the conclusions. Certainly the comments by Sheila Walsh with respect to the role of motorcycles and other L category vehicles are highly questionable. The effect of motorcycles on congestion was not within the scope of the research, so to claim that motorcycles are not the answer to urban traffic issues is entirely spurious.
I welcome research into real world emissions from motorcycles but the methodologies used for cars in the real world are clearly demonstrated in this report to be poor with respect to motorcycles. Jumping to conclusions based on this research would seem extremely premature.”
Contact MAG at 01926 844 064 or central-office@mag-uk.org