In-Use Emissions Testing Developments in the New and Future European Motor Vehicle Emissions Regulations

In use emissions testing with Portable Emissions Measurement Systems (PEMS) has become one of the key elements of the European emissions legislation. The first ‘official’ step was the publication of the procedures to verify the conformity of gaseous emissions from heavy-duty engines, under the Commission Regulation (EU) 582/2011. To adapt these procedures to Non-Road Mobile Machinery (NRMM), a pilot program was launched and will address the specificities for testing and data evaluation. It will also stimulate the dissemination of know-how and the development of good practices. More recently, in-use emissions testing with PEMS became one of the solutions envisaged to control and limit the “real-driving emissions” of passenger cars, as foreseen in the EURO 6 Regulation 715/2007, which “requests the Commission to investigate the use of "portable emission measurement systems" (PEMS) and "not-to-exceed" regulatory concepts (...) and the need to bring real world emissions in line with those measured at type approval.” This paper will review the progress in the above-mentioned implementation of in-use emissions testing for regulatory purposes. It will describe the underlying principles used in Europe to check the conformity of large engines and those who might be at a later stage used to assess the real-driving emissions. Finally, the paper will discuss the role which in-use emissions testing may play in the upcoming regulatory efforts: proposing an effective and cost-efficient legislative scheme is becoming increasingly important as the diversity and the degree of sophistication of engine and vehicle technologies (e.g. hybrid and electric vehicles, alternative fuels) increases. In-use emissions testing may help to overcome some of the difficulties faced by the current standard emissions testing in the laboratory.JRC.F.8-Sustainable Transpor