Fuel guzzlers to be named and shamed

Cars on Australian roads that don’t meet the fuel efficiency and emissions standards claimed by manufacturers will at last be identified as part of a new on-road testing regime.

A PLUG-IN hybrid car that guzzled massively more fuel than its manufacturer claimed will be named and shamed if it again performs poorly in a new Australian road test.

Several VW cars – including those which have had well-documented emissions issues – are also expected to be among the 60 vehicles selected for the Australian Automobile Association (AAA) assessment.

The new tests will “name and shame” the vehicles that perform badly in terms of fuel economy and emissions.

“Australian motorists who are paying more than $2.50 a litre, all of a sudden, they really want to know how a car performs in the real world, not what it does in a laboratory,” AAA Managing Director Michael Bradley said.

First results should be available in the final quarter of 2022.

The Australian Automobile Association is conducting real-world tests for fuel efficiency and emissions on 60 popular cars. Picture: Supplied

“We will be choosing cars that are volume sellers in the Australian market place. Cars you are most likely to be sitting next to at the traffic lights,” he said.

The number of hybrids included in the study will “mirror their penetration of the Australian market,” he added.

Vehicle emissions have come under greater scrutiny since 2015, when Volkswagen was forced to admit it installed software in some vehicles to sidestep US regulations.

The German car maker had really “belled the cat” on emissions, Mr Bradley said.

“Volkswagen taught us that not everyone is playing by the rules in how they comply with laboratory tests,” he said.

“Our pilot study and other tests like it around the world show there is a big difference between how cars perform in a lab and how they perform in the real world.”

The Volkswagen Polo GTI hatch. VW cars are likely to feature in the round of AAA tests.

The AAA’s 2017 pilot study into the fuel consumption of 30 popular vehicles found a plug-in hybrid was 166 per cent higher than the official figures with a full state of charge, and 337 per cent higher when tested from a low state of charge.

Overall, fuel consumption was on average 23 per cent higher than what the manufacturers advertised.

AAA Managing Director Michael Bradley.

Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen. Picture: NCA NewsWire / James Gourley

Of the petrol vehicles tested, the worst performer had fuel consumption 59 per cent higher than the manufacturer claimed.

Many cars in the 2017 pilot study also performed poorly on emissions tests, with some vehicles emitting more than seven times the amount of oxideof nitrogen and five times the amount of carbon monoxide than the makers’ official figures.

Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said the new AAA tests – funded annually for the next five years – would “help drive fuel savings through informed consumer choice”.

“Consumers deserve accurate information. Actual vehicle emissions and fuel use measured in laboratory testing often vary, with families and businesses often having inaccurate or incomplete information about actual fuel consumption in vehicles they purchase,” Mr Bowen said.

Originally published as Fuel guzzlers to be named and shamed