BMW’s Alphabet: Diesel OK for Fleet Use
BMW’s fleet management subsidiary has claimed a recent study shows diesel engines compliant with modern standards are suitable for fleet use.
Alphabet cited analysis by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) as showing the nitrogen oxide emissions of diesel engines adhering to the Euro 6d-TEMP exhaust emission standard are well under “the statutory NOx limits under real driving conditions”.
The subsidiary said the ACEA study showed 270 diesel passenger cars passed the World Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP) lab-based emissions test and the RDE (Real Driving Emissions) test. Alphabet said the majority of, but not all, diesel passenger vehicles which took both tests produced emissions results “well below the permissible limit values”.
It added a separate study from ADAC Ecotest showed Euro 6d-TEMP-compliant diesel engines emitted 85% less nitrogen oxide than Euro 5-compliant ones and 76% less than Euro 6b-compliant engines. It used this data as the basis for its argument that “for those who drive often and long distances, there is no alternative to diesel in the medium term. With low fuel consumption and low pollutant emissions, modern Euro 6d-TEMP diesel engines are not only ecologically convincing, but also economical”.
Sensing an opportunity to sell its own vehicles, Alphabet added: “The BMW Group for example certified around 220 model variants according to the Euro 6d-TEMP norm by November 2018”.
