Demonised diesel Land Rover Discovery 4×4 found to be 20 times CLEANER than a Renault Clio as new emissions test reveals which cars really are dirty

By Paul Homewood

 

h/t Patsy Lacey

 

 

It appears Michael Gove has lost his main (supposed) reason for banning diesel and petrol cars:

 

The latest diesel Land Rover Discovery 4×4 – a car demonised for being dirty – is actually 20 times less polluting than a Renault Clio mini hatchback (also with a diesel engine), radical new independent emissions tests have revealed.

Remarkably, the British-built Land Rover finishes with a top ranking A-grade in the new car Air Index eco-rating scale carried out in the UK – suggesting it is one of the cleanest and greenest vehicles on the road despite it's hulk-like size and Chelsea Tractor image.

By contrast the French Renault Clio hatchback – once famed for its popular 'Papa and Nicole' adverts – has been awarded the worst E-grade for being one of the most polluting.

The study adds to the evidence piling up in favour of diesel cars after tests by German motoring association ADAC last week found that the latest Euro6 models were producing little to no harmful nitrogen oxide emissions during real-world measurements.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/cars/article-6752439/Diesel-Land-Rover-Discovery-20-times-cleaner-dirty-Renault-Clio-supermini.html

There clearly need to be questions asked as to how cars like the Clio, itself supposedly Euro 6, can fail this test so badly. This maybe suggests lack of proper application of the new standards and monitoring by French authorities.

But the exercise does indicate that, with recent technological advances and rigorous application of standards, emissions from diesels can be brought down to extremely low levels.

As the Mail comments:

Their results call into question the controversial demonisation of diesel by politicians and green groups – and threatened with being banned from city centres – which has seen sales of cars using the fuel slump by about a third.

It follows similar tests carried out by independent body ADAC, which found that a new Euro6-rated diesel Mercedes family car produced zero NOx emissions during real-world tests, which a large BMW estate and Vauxhall Astra hatchback emitted barely any traces of the harmful pollutant.  

 

This demonisation of diesel has already had drastic effects on the UK car industry, with the news that Honda is to shut down its Swindon factory and Nissan are abandoning plans to build the X-Trail here.

Unfortunately for Britain's car industry, Michael Gove's real reason for wanting to ban diesel and petrol engined cars is not the spurious excuse of air pollution. It is instead the government's obsession with climate change.

We will see the devastating impact of that on the industry in years to come.

from Climate Change Skeptic Blogs via hj on Inoreader https://ift.tt/2Tp7rVa