Van C02 Changes Article
Van fleet operators will be kept in the dark over their vehicles’ fuel economy and CO2 figures, despite new legislation forcing manufacturers to produce such figures for all new LCVs.
From January 2008, all vans under 3.5 tonnes must be emissions tested, empty on a rolling road, to comply with EU regulations. However, there will be no requirement to publish the findings.
With increasing pressure to go green but with no information to help them, fleet operators are now calling for these findings to be released.
Some manufacturers have taken the initiative and already publish their economy figures.
Volkswagen has been doing so for the past 30 years and Citroën and Peugeot now voluntarily publish their figures, pre-empting the monitoring process in January. Peugeot have called for other van makers to follow suit.
“All manufacturers have these figures anyway and having to release them would be a good thing as it makes the market more transparent,” he said.
There has been concern among those manufacturers who don’t publish their figures that the tests will not be accurate, as they will be conducted with empty vans and aerodynamics will not be taken into account.
A Ford spokeman said the manufacturer would not publish its economy data unless forced to. “When the law changes we will publish the figures,” he said.
