From Laboratory to Road. A 2016 update of official and real-world fuel concumption and CO2 values for passenger cars in Europe

Official average carbon dioxide (CO2) emission values of new passenger cars in the
European Union declined from 170 grams per kilometer (g/km) in 2001 to 120 g/km
in 2015. The rate of reduction in CO2 emission values increased from roughly 1% per
year to almost 4% per year after CO2 standards were introduced in 2009. Today, car
manufacturers are on track to meet the 2021 target of 95 g/km. This rapid decline in CO2
emission values seems to be a rousing success for CO2 standards, but does not consider
the real-world performance of vehicles.
Our From Laboratory to Road series focuses on the real-world performance of new
European passenger cars and compares on-road and official CO2 emission values. The
studies have documented a growing divergence between real-world and official figures,
and this divergence has become increasingly concerning.
This fourth update of the From Laboratory to Road series adds another year of data
(2015), one new country (France), two new data sources (Allstar fuel card and Fiches-
Auto.fr), and approximately 400,000 vehicles to the analysis. The key takeaway from
the analysis, however, remains unchanged. The divergence between type-approval
and real-world CO2 emission values of new European cars continues to grow. Data on
approximately 1 million vehicles from 13 data sources and seven countries indicate
that the divergence, or gap, between official and real-world CO2
emission values of
new European passenger cars increased from approximately 9% in 2001 to 42% in
2015 (see Figure ES- 1). We consider these findings to be robust given the considerable
regional coverage; the heterogeneity of the data collected from consumers, company
fleets, and vehicle tests; and the unambiguous upward trend in all samples.