Green Vehicle Index Project

Project Information

GVI

Grant agreement ID: 814794

DOI

10.3030/814794

Project closed

EC signature date 11 April 2019

Start date 1 June 2019

End date 28 February 2021

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost

€ 2 999 178,75

EU contribution

€ 2 999 178,75

Coordinated by

IDIADA AUTOMOTIVE TECHNOLOGY SA
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GVI (Green Vehicle Index Project)

Reporting period: 2019-06-01 to 2021-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Traditionally, EU consumers, buyers of passenger cars, have shown little interest in environmental performance (i.e. minimised level of pollutant emissions and optimised fuel efficiency and driving range).There isn’t any comprehensible and easy to understand information available on the environmental performance of a vehicle.

Nowadays, consumers may consider environmental performance as one of many purchasing criteria. However, the defeat device scandal resulted in loss of trust by consumers in regulatory and industry information.
Regulatory information is more geared towards making the pass / fail decision for authorities in approval testing and only offers limited information that is directly useable for consumers. The GVI program targets to complement regulatory information and make it easier for consumers to comprehend this information allowing direct comparison of the wide range of propulsion types. GVI also aims to provide a much completer and more detailed picture for authorities and stakeholders how a vehicle performs under real-world conditions ahead of regulatory developments.

The overall aim of the Green Vehicle Index project is to orient the consumer towards the most energy efficient low polluting vehicle by providing understandable information. In order to achieve this goal the following objectives were defined:

1. To define a holistic scoring mechanism and independent rating system for light duty vehicle’s environmental performance
2. To develop a testing program for the assessment of vehicles, its sustainability by closing existing gaps and developing procedures beyond the state of the art.
3. To demonstrate, verify and validate the overall scoring methodology and testing procedures by testing 49 market representative vehicles.
4. To create the structure and appropriate instruments to economically self-sustain the program and sparking competition within the European automotive industry.
5. To define a complete roadmap to 2030 for the assessment program (Green NCAP). The roadmap provides guidance on how to complement and extent the program
6. To provide recommendations based on gaps identified and on the validated results to rule makers to enable the update of future regulations on vehicle environmental performance

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Scoring Mechanism:

The rating system task force developed a scoring methodology that provides consumers impartial guidance on the environmental performances of vehicles, for consumers easy to understand, by means of star ratings, with underlying layers of information for those interested in more details behind the rating. To support the development of such a rating system and to ensure that environmental awareness, interests, opinions, behaviour and preferences of consumers with regard to car preferences are taken into account.

Testing Programme:
A testing program for the assessment of vehicles was successfully developed, its sustainability by closing gaps in the current legislation was proved by verification and validation tests on 51 vehicles. The additional determination of the maximum engine load curve proves, that the several tests belonging to the developed test matrix are able to close many gaps in engine speed/load operation. The assessment of unregulated pollutants NH3 and N2O was successfully implemented in laboratory tests as well as the split of NOx into NO and NO2. Low ambient temperature conditions are covered by the cold ambient temperature test which challenges vehicles with cold start at -7°C. The 51 vehicles were also challenged by a robustness part of program updated for PEMS tests, thus revealing the potential or the weaknesses of tested models in heavy conditions or eco-driving. New technologies have been as well considered with an adaptation of the test matrix to PHEV. Besides the assessment of pollutants, the vehicle´s energy consumption can be evaluated and compared regardless of the drivetrain setup.
The well-balanced testing program combines the highly comparable test results from chassis dynamometer testing in a laboratory with the realistic test conditions during PEMS tests on road. Both laboratory and on-road tests go significantly beyond the state of art regarding power demand and ambient conditions, regardless of the drivetrain setup. The selection of these 51 vehicles was based on market relevance itemised according to market segments as well as the consideration of alternative propulsion unit systems and new technologies. The reproducibility and robustness of the test procedures were proved by application in eight different test laboratories.

Roadmap:
The aim of the Roadmap is to identify future tests and ratings for the period 2019-2030 in line with the view of the test partners and complementary to the specifications of state-of-the-art environmental standards and environmental legislation.

The content of the Roadmap will consider among others the following items:
• Upgrade of existing and introduction of new test procedures
• Pollutants of which the PEMS equipment currently is under development: Non-Methane Hydro Carbons (NMHC), Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) and Ammonia (NH3), etc
• Parameters with high impact on vehicles: driving down vehicle mass and rolling resistance, aerodynamic drag, etc.
• Secure and Connected vehicles: antimanipulation, cybersecurity, etc.
• Well-to-wheel basis replacing Tank-to-wheel as first step, Life cycle analysis of the vehicles

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The GVI program have established a solid basis in Europe and even at the UNECE level, to grow into a fully deployed consumer test program.

Transparent and detailed test procedures and test results translated into a simple rating to inform and empower consumers with relevant knowledge was realised and media picked up the two GVI releases.
The impact of generating objective and digestible environmental vehicle performance information for consumers that enables making an informed purchasing decision based on the environmental performance of vehicles was attained, which was acknowledged by the various media publications;
The impact of stimulating OEMs to develop vehicles that minimise pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions and, at the same time, operate at minimised fuel and energy consumption under real-world conditions during their lifetime without compromising vehicle safety and propulsion unit performance, could therefore also not be attained. OEMs react on market demand and this needs further test results and investments before OEM buy-in can be reached.
Providing transparent and detailed technical information and test results to experts as impact was successfully reached by the final event on 25 February 2021 as well as by the GVI two publications that also provided rating sheet information at expert level.
Finally, having an impact on Euro 7 legislation could be achieved. Many elements and suggestions from the Green NCAP/GVI Roadmap 2030 are being scrutinised by the CLOVE consortium as possible policy options. The GVI datasets were supplied to DG JRC, who will use these as evidence to justify Euro 7 policy measures.
And contributing to the state of the art:
• State-of-the-art test procedures. Firm basis were the regulatory procedures WLTP and RDE. GVI enhanced them to realise the vision that a propulsion shall be clean and energy efficient in every engine operation point;
• State-of-the-art performance criteria
• State-of-the-art rating system breaking new grounds

WP description