Cars actually become less efficient compared to the manufacturer’s promise.
The consumption of a car is particularly difficult to determine. It’s almost not about what you drive, but how you drive. That has actually always been the case. Just drive like an idiot for a week (too much gas, lots of short distances, no anticipation, always in a hurry) and then spend a week just drifting along with the traffic. You will see that consumption will decrease enormously.
But coming close to the manufacturer’s consumption specifications remains very difficult. According to the ‘International Council on Clean Transportation’, this gap is getting bigger. Much bigger. They did a huge study and examined 160,000 cars. Well, ‘researched’, they took the data of 160,000 euros on Spritmonitor and compared it with the factory specification.
Cars are actually less economical
Let’s start with the good news: today’s cars are cleaner than the cars of ‘the past’. The problem is that it doesn’t really make any progress. According to the EU, consumption fell by 7.3% between 2018 and 2022. The problem is that in reality this is only 2.3 percent. Well, in real life, on Spritmonitor, that is.
According to the ICCT, the EU must make immediate corrections because fuel consumption is still too high. We have now gained a lot by switching from the optimistic NEDC to the more realistic WLTP. The ICCT sees that the gap between the WLTP and reality is starting to grow seriously.
Scary method
Of course, the EU has come up with a very narrow method to control this. The consumption figures of ALL cars that receive their first MOT this year will be read out and sent to the RDW! As if Microsoft decides to send your browser data to the GGZ with the next software update.
The RDW then sends that data to the European Environment Agency. Thank God the EU isn’t going all George Orwell and you can (still) refuse not to share that data. It is useful to know: it does not matter for the outcome of the MOT.
Nuance
Then it is time for the now famous Car Whiz Nuance. Look: the numbers don’t lie. We also use the Spritmonitor figures for the Car Whiz Advice. It is of course true that these are mainly German figures, including mountainous environments and a highway that you can drive through.
In addition, the popularity of the plug-in hybrid is increasing. And even more than with a regular car, HOW you use the technology is important. If you drive from charging station to charging station, you can now drive almost emission-free. However, if you hardly charge and drive at high speeds, consumption will increase considerably. Then there are larger differences between reality and factory specifications.
And then a little ‘told you so’. Small A-segment cars that do not have electrical support are sold less and less. Especially with these cars, the difference between the task and reality is often relatively small, while the differences with the PHEVs that are enormously stimulated can be very large.
Via: AD Auto
Photo credit: not too economical Audis in a row by @spotcrewda via Car Whiz Spots.
