Following Volkswagen’s Dieselgate fiasco, BMW was also accused of tampering with its diesel engines by Auto Bild only to have the German publication retract its story. BMW’s diesel vehicles passed all government testing and there are no discrepancies between the test results and real-time road results of emissions in BMW’s diesel cars. Now, it seems that the European Union, as well as other government agencies around the world, are setting even tougher standards for CO2 emissions. By 2020, the restrictions will be so strict that the only way to achieve the proper emissions across the overall lineup will be with the extensive use of modern diesel engines and hybrid technology.
The EU already has extremely strict emissions laws and the only way companies like BMW can achieve the demanded emissions is by use of diesel engines. BMW actually claims it’s not possible to meet the requirements without modern diesel engines, as diesels produce from 15 to 20 percent less CO2 than the standard petrol engine, on average. So BMW has greatly invested in diesel technology, especially with its EfficientDynamics engine line that is flexible for both kinds of fuel. But then again, BMW is a company that needs to invest highly in diesel, as it’s such a large part of BMW’s sales.
Approximately 38 percent of all BMW’s sold worldwide are powered by diesel engines. 80 percent of all BMWs sold in Europe are diesel, 73 percent in Germany but only 6 percent in the US, however that 6 percent represents about 20,000 vehicles. Being that the EU has stricter emissions regulations than the US and companies like BMW are meeting them by selling all of these diesel cars, you’d figure we’d wise up as a nation and get more diesels. But I’ll save my breathe, as it won’t happen. The Euro 6 emissions standard, which took effect on 1 September 2015 and is binding for all new vehicle registrations, improves both environmental and consumer protection.
But since Dieselgate, the EU is working on a new series of testing to insure that there is no discrepancy between testing results and real world driving results. The testing will be known as “RDE”, or Real Driving Emissions”. BMW is already on board with this new style of testing, but of course it would be as BMW’s vehicles all passed during both kinds of testing. So BMW has nothing to hide. It will be interesting to see how Volkswagen handles such new testing procedures.
But with diesels being so important to the BMW brand, and the success its already had in both sales and testing, BMW is going to do everything it can to comply with all new diesel regulations and restrictions as it must. This is good, though, as we know that as customers we can trust BMW to produce diesel engines that not only deliver on the advertised power and efficiency BMW promises but that they will comply with all necessary restrictions and be completely legal. As Nikki Lauda in “Rush” said “It’s good for everyone that the fastest car is also a legal car”.
