January 2018
EU Proposes Mandatory Fitment of Onboard Fuel Consumption Measuring Devices
As part of their efforts to ensure that the fuel consumption figures measured during type approval testing, are representative of the figures achieved in real world driving, on 12th December 2017, the European Commission published a draft Regulation that proposes to mandate the fitment of onboard fuel consumption measuring devices to all new light duty vehicles (i.e. M1 and N1 category vehicles). The intention is that, once all new light duty vehicles are fitted with such devices, "real world" fuel consumption data from vehicles in use can be collected and compared to the recorded type approval figures, to identify where discrepancies exist.
The European Commission recognise that the majority of new light duty vehicles are already equipped with some form of fuel consumption measuring device, but currently there are no standardised requirements on these devices, their accuracy or on the accessibility to the data stored within them. Therefore, the Commission are proposing an amendment to EU Regulation No. 2017/1151 on light duty vehicle emissions, which will mandate the fitment of onboard fuel consumption measuring devices to M1 and N1 category vehicles, and will lay down some minimum requirements on the specification of such devices.
The draft Regulation mandates the fitment of onboard fuel consumption measuring devices to all M1 and N1 category vehicles powered by diesel, biodiesel, petrol or ethanol, including plug-in hybrid vehicles using one or more of these fuels. The draft Regulation also specifies requirements on the following aspects of the onboard fuel consumption measuring device:
- The information to be recorded and stored by the device, including total distance travelled by the vehicle, total fuel consumption over that distance and, in the case of plug-in hybrid vehicles, the total amount of electrical energy taken from the grid.
- The accuracy of the fuel consumption measurements recorded by the device, equating to ±4%.
- The standardised and unrestricted access to the data stored on the device via the onboard diagnostic (OBD) system interface, referencing ISO standards ISO 15765 and ISO 15031.
With regard to introduction dates, the draft Regulation specifies the following:
| New type approvals | All new vehicles | |
|
M1 and N1 category vehicles of Class I (i.e. reference mass ≤ 1305 kg) e.g. passenger cars, multipurpose passenger vehicles, car derived vans and small pick-up trucks |
1st January 2020 | 1st January 2021 |
|
N1 category vehicles of classes II and III (i.e. reference mass > 1305 kg) e.g. vans, large pick-up trucks and light trucks |
1st January 2021 | 1st January 2022 |