He and his team spent the summer or more, but they achieved their goals. ” Everything is ready. Our vehicles are homologated according to the WLTP standard. There is no interruption of production in our factories, all our models are available for sale in our concessions, “smiles Gilles Le Borgne, head of R & D at PSA.
To comply with WLTP, the new European car homologation rule that comes into effect on Saturday , the French manufacturer had to do, like its competitors, a big job to get the stamp of the authorities for several hundred models. “The details of the new standard were only given at the end of July 2017. We had to redo all the engine settings of our ranges, then have them tested in the laboratory and finally complete the administrative files,” says the engineer.
The arrival of WLTP, more demanding than the previous test, is not without consequence. According to Jato Dynamics, each car emits an average of 9.6 grams of CO2 per kilometer. “It’s normal, we change the thermometer. In the new test, the average speed is almost doubled, acceleration is almost 50% higher, and the engine temperature is lower at startup, “says Gilles Le Borgne.
At PSA, the increase in CO2 emissions is between 24 and 31%, depending on the vehicle. “It’s more pronounced in big cars with a small engine,” explains the manager. In fact, the increase is more frank for large SUVs than for sedans or small city cars, says Jato Dynamics.
It is not easy for everyone to take this step. Forced to stop production in some factories, lack of approvals, Volkswagen seems to be the most embarrassed. Thursday, the VW brand had obtained the necessary buffer for half of its 14 models. “We are waiting for validation for the Golf in the coming days,” says Thomas Zahn, the sales manager, who had to store thousands of vehicles at a Berlin airport.
Volkswagen underwater
In June, Herbert Diess, the big boss of the German giant, explained that the manufacture of 250,000 vehicles would be postponed. A shortfall of about one billion euros. “We have lost expertise in engine development,” lamented this summer who still has to deal with the consequences of the dieselgate, adding that the WLTP was the “biggest risk for sales and margins” of his group. here the end of the year.
At Renault, the deputy general manager, Thierry Bolloré, admitted in late July that the WLTP had caused “a lot of tension internally”. But that everything would be stalled. Renault took the opportunity to “reduce the diversity of products and optimize the catalog”, added Thierry Bolloré. Some models with very low volume or at the end of their career, like the Clio RS, have been put in the garage.
The Losange brand has also introduced new, more efficient diesel and gasoline engines. “The WLTP will affect our operations until the spring of 2019. We do not know if we will have the certificates in time, and if the customers will be ready to follow a price increase, brought about by the addition of technologies”, warned Carlos Ghosn, the boss of Renault, last February.
Few consequences on sales?
“There should not really be any consequences on sales, even if it may still push manufacturers to offer certain versions of one vehicle over another,” judge Romain Gillet, an analyst at IHS. According to him, to pass the new tests, a number of manufacturers had to review the pollution control equipment of their models (for a cost of several hundred euros per car), and thus redefine the plans of their machines. “You absolutely need an SCR on diesel, and a particle filter on gasoline,” he says.
To avoid the worst, some brands have simply made inventory – knowing that they can sell cars produced under the old standard for over a year yet. According to LMC Automotive, European manufacturers have gone up to 65 days of advance sales, against 60 at the beginning of the year. This summer, registrations have even surged in Europe, the firm suspecting the effect of WLTP.
While the WLTP cycle is more representative of reality than the previous one, there is still a difference in consumption of about 30% between what is found in the laboratory and what happens on the road.