We’ve all seen those over inflated MPG figures published by car manufacturers in order to entice us in to purchasing their latest model. Most people also know these numbers have little bearing on the figures the car actually produces in every day road conditions and usually take them with a pinch of salt.
However, since the VW emissions scandal broke last year, a whole new can of worms has opened up in the Automotive industry regarding the use of AdBlue® and the way in which emissions testing is carried out.
Initially the problem was thought to only involve VW and the way they used software to manipulate the test conditions in order to produce artificial results. However it seems the problem seems to lie much deeper.
In the US, car manufacturers including Daimler, Peugeot and Opel are being threatened with regulatory action from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), not for trying to fix the test results, but by the way their Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) systems work and the amount of AdBlue® that is being used.
The bottom line is that in order to comply with the Euro-6 Standard urea-nitrate solution, AdBlue® is mixed into the SCR system to filter out Nitrogen Oxide before it hits the air. The problem is that it seems these systems are not injecting anywhere near enough AdBlue® to meet the necessary regulations.
A report in the Netherlands, commissioned by the Dutch Government found that in order to supply the correct amount of AdBlue® until the next scheduled service the AdBlue® tank would have to be significantly bigger and that current designs are 40-80% too small.
For car manufacturers, bigger tanks are not a practical solution, so for consumers this means refilling and buying AdBlue® much more regularly than was previously thought and the cost of buying AdBlue® will be a significant factor in the decision making process when buying a new car.
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