Tougher emissions measurement, new threat to brands

The new directives declaring_CO2 in the EU may be a blow to the capitalization of brands.

Spanish society does not know in depth about pollution. 82.9% say they are “very aware” about_CO2 emissions in transport, but only a third are clear about what net emissions mean. These are the latest results of the survey on the perception of new mobility technologies in transport, prepared by the consultancy GAD3, known for its electoral polls.

The conclusion is not favorable, as it shows that there is still a significant sector of the population (32%) that is unfamiliar with the new propulsion modes. This, they argue, has resulted in delaying the decision to buy a vehicle (48.8%), which has an impact on a slower renewal of the mobile fleet – according to the most recent data from the national association of manufacturers, the current average stands at 13.8 years – and in a slowdown in the decarbonization process, the objective towards which the European Parliament is advancing for the year 2050.

87.1% of Spaniards think that_CO2 is toxic, which, according to GAD3, “makes clear the ignorance of the population”. Carbon dioxide is a gas that is not harmful to humans, it is simply not useful for the body, since it occupies the oxygen space and becomes more difficult to breathe.

The truly harmful emissions are those of nitrogen oxides (NOx), caused mainly by old diesel engines and those of solid particles, product of filters in poor condition and the simple fact of driving, even with an electric car. In the survey, 43% and 49% of the population were unaware of its harmful effect on health, respectively.

However,_CO2 is associated with global warming and it is this that is sought to reduce, for example, through fines to manufacturers who exceed the threshold of 95 grams per kilometer.

An accounting issue

More than half of the population does not know that the only thing that is accounted for in terms of carbon, by manufacturers, is what is emitted by the exhaust pipe. This, as of next year, will cease to be the case.

The European Union will introduce from 2023 the requirement for financial institutions to declare their indirect emissions, with the intention of discouraging investment in carbon-intensive industries. This, in the words of the environmental organisation Transport and Environment (T&E), “is a ticking time bomb for the automotive industry”.

According to the association, 98% of manufacturers’ emissions come precisely from the use of their cars – which the EU would consider “indirect”, being direct those generated in the industrial process. However, they argue that the manufacturers start from an erroneous basis in their calculations and that the actual emissions are much higher than they declare, something that could become “the next big automotive scandal”.

To arrive at their results, manufacturers use information such as the size of their vehicles, the places where they are driven or the useful life of their models. Toyota, for example, considers that its vehicles are only circulating for 100,000 km. At the other extreme, Stellantis uses 240,000 km, while Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen or the Hyundai Group calculate it at around 200,000 kilometers.

According to the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), emissions recorded in WLTP approval – which came into force in 2021 to more accurately reflect actual driving conditions – are 14% more benign than real ones.

One of the problems faced by manufacturers is that they have different constraints in regions. While an American buyer wants a pick-up with a V8 engine, in Europe they could not sell it. Thus, T&E has taken the average emissions (based on 2020 figures) of each manufacturer, unifying them in a table.

According to the brands themselves, their cars emit an average of 45 tons of CO2 over their lifetime, however, this is 51% more optimistic than the organization’s calculations, which estimate the minimum at 68 tons of_CO2.

Neutral emissions

Much of the presentation of the GAD3 study had to do with bringing alternative means of propulsion to students at the Polytechnic University of Madrid. Although the electric car is already a reality, only a third of the population is familiar with engines such as hydrogen, gas or synthetic fuels.

In her presentation on the latter, Repsol’s Head of Product Design, Dolores Cárdenas, spoke of the possibility of using advanced biofuels as an alternative to reduce emissions from the combustion fleet. According to the oil company, these could mean a saving of 90% of_CO2. In addition, work is underway on synthetic fuel refineries that would have the capacity to recover 100% of net carbon emissions.

Developing this technology would be key to ensuring the existence of heat engines beyond 2035. However, no refinery of this type of fuel has yet been built – it is estimated that the first will arrive in 2025 – and from T&E they estimate that the production of 2035 will only be enough for 2% of the European mobile fleet, that is: five million cars.

Source: El Norte de Castilla