MEPs have voted for mandatory fuel consumption meters on all new cars from 2019 – tightening the Commission’s original proposal on eliminating the discrepancy between emissions in test conditions and those in real-world driving, which omitted fuel consumption meters. The European Parliament’s environment committee said the proposal didn’t do enough to reduce fuel use, and last month it voted for indicators to be obligatory on all new models from 2018 and on all new cars from 1 January 2019.
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T&E’s vehicles policy officer Julia Poliscanova said: ‘Fuel consumption meters are a quick and easy way to achieve fuel efficiency gains of 2-3% and offer drivers the chance to save up to €50 per year on fuel costs. Just as speedometers are part of every car, van and lorry, so fuel consumption devices should be too. MEPs are right to require them to become a basic requirement of every new car, van and lorry as part of efforts to encourage eco-driving.’
The committee also called for parallel technology that shows a driver when is the best time to change gear (in order to use the least fuel possible) to be made obligatory at the same time as fuel consumption meters.
The lead MEP for the legislation, Albert Dess, said: ‘The environment committee has shown its strong support for the completion of the real-driving emissions procedure. It is very important that road vehicles comply with tough emission laws not only in the laboratory but also in the real world.’
Trilogue negotiations between the Parliament, governments and the Commission are ongoing and are expected to be concluded by December.