Car Owners Face Fuel Shock as Emissions Tests Miss Reality
- Real-world car CO2 emissions 42% higher than lab results
- Lower eficiency means owners spend an extra 400 euros on fuel
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Car owners in Europe are paying about 400 euros ($460) a year more than they expected for fuel because of a record gap between what vehicles actually burn on the road compared with manufacturers’ data, according to a study from the International Council on Clean Transportation.
Carbon dioxide emissions on the road are 42 percent higher on average than the official figures from carmakers, the organization, which helped uncover Volkswagen AG’s cheating on diesel emissions, said in a summary of the report released Monday. The difference was just 9 percent in 2001, which means most claims of efficiency improvements only showed up in lab tests, according to the ICCT.