After Dieselgate scandal, everyone learned its lesson. Not only Volkswagen. Opel is also learning from its rivals mistakes. And they act quickly, ahead of other European manufacturers.
According to a recent press release, in addition to the official fuel consumption and CO2 information, Opel cars fuel consumption numbers recorded under the WLTP cycle will also be published. The first model to benefit from this measure is the new Astra.
According to EU plans, the “New European Driving Cycle” (NEDC) will be replaced starting in 2017 with the more modern standard “Worldwide Harmonized Light Duty Vehicles Test Procedure” (WLTP). The WLTP – also a test conducted in laboratory conditions – is based on stringent test procedures, more consistent with fuel consumption and CO2 emissions in real-life road traffic.
In addition, diesel engineers have recently started working on an initiative to implement NOx emission improvements on SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) diesel applications. This is a voluntary and early improvement towards the so-called RDE (Real Driving Emissions) legislation that goes into effect in 2017.
The work on Euro 6 SCR improvement has started and a production implementation is expected as of the summer of 2016. This activity will also include a voluntary customer satisfaction field action that will involve 43.000 vehicles that are already on the road in Europe (Zafira Tourer, Insignia and Cascada).These vehicles will get a new calibration once it becomes available.
