EU to End Undercounting of Plug-in Hybrid Emissions

The climate ratings of plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) are set to become a lot more realistic after the EU agreed today to assess their CO2 emissions based on how much they actually emit on the road. Green group Transport & Environment (T&E), which has campaigned for years to highlight the true impact of “fake” electric vehicles, said the new system would end the emissions scandal that is misleading consumers and allowing carmakers to significantly weaken their CO2 targets.

Currently, regulators assume PHEVs are driven far more in electric mode than is actually the case, leading to unrealistically low emissions ratings. From 2025, the EU will significantly reduce the so-called utility factors, which is the share of electric driving that regulators use for calculating CO2 emissions of PHEVs. From 2027, the utility factors of plug-in hybrids will be fully aligned with how they are driven in the real world.

Anna Krajinska, emissions engineer at T&E, said:

“For years, the emissions of plug-in hybrids were based on unrealistic driving conditions. The new rules reflect the reality that PHEVs pollute far more than carmakers claim. Governments which still incentivise the purchase of these fake electric vehicles need to stop those harmful subsidies now.”

The latest data show that, on average, privately owned PHEVs emit three times more CO2 — and therefore use three times more fuel — than recorded officially. For company cars it is even worse: plug-in hybrids emit five times more than their official ratings. Carmakers have blamed drivers for high emissions, but in reality PHEVs are poorly made with small batteries, weak electric motors, big engines, and usually no ability to fast charge.

The current, unrealistic CO2 ratings allow most PHEVs to count as “low emissions” vehicles under the EU’s clean car rules. The law gives carmakers a bonus for each zero or low emissions vehicle they sell, prompting manufacturers to make more plug-in hybrids as a way of weakening their fleet average emissions target.

Anna Krajinska said:

“We welcome the end of the myth that plug-in hybrids are low emissions vehicles. Carmakers will no longer be able to sell high volumes of PHEVs for the sole purpose of weakening their climate targets. If they want to avoid EU fines they will have to sell genuinely green cars that help reduce our oil consumption.”

The EU also decided to review its new utility factors in 2024 based on data collected from on-board fuel consumption metres, which will give a more comprehensive assessment of the share of kilometres driven electrically. This will provide an opportunity to further amend the 2025 and 2027 utility factors agreed today.

Originally published on Transport & Environment.

Related, earlier article:

PHEV emissions in reality are much higher than the tests suggest

The environmental rating of hybrid cars is set to become a lot more realistic following publication of an updated EU assessment of how little plug-in hybrids contribute to reducing emissions. It means many hybrids will no longer count as “low-CO2” and will not qualify for tax breaks and regulatory benefits that incentivise motorists and companies to buy them.

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) were once advertised as the go-to cars for climate-conscious drivers, combining an electric motor with a petrol- or diesel-fuelled second engine. The thinking was that PHEVs could allow for e-motoring wherever possible, but with the back-up of a combustion engine if necessary. But it has become clear that the number of kilometres driven by PHEV owners on the electric motor is quasi non-existent, which means regulatory and monetary benefits are going towards fossil fuelled motoring.

For a hybrid car to count as “low-CO2” within EU car CO2 standards, it has to emit no more than 50 grams of CO2 per kilometre. For the average PHEV to achieve that, over 70% of its distance must be driven on the electric motor. It means that hybrids qualify as “low-CO2” on the basis of type-approval tests, yet poor design and driver behaviour means emissions in reality are much higher than the tests suggest. Standard hybrids — which are self-charging and not plug-in — will not be affected by the change.

The latest data show that, on average, privately owned PHEVs emit three times more CO2 (and therefore use three times more fuel) than recorded in official tests. For company cars it is even worse, with just 11–15% of kilometres driven electrically, when official assumptions are for 70–85%.

In emissions terms, this means the average PHEV sold last year emits between 114 and 190 g/km of CO2 instead of the officially expected 38 g/km. With carmakers facing more stringent CO2 targets, the low official CO2 emissions of PHEVs are driving rising sales. In 2021 they were 71% up on 2020 sales, with almost 1 million units sold, making emissions from road transport worse under the guise of moving to greener technology.

In February, the European Commission published an update on the “utility factors” of PHEVs, which is the fraction of distance that a PHEV operates using predominantly electricity used for calculating CO2 emissions. T&E heavily criticised the draft for failing to tackle the gap between the share of e-kilometres assumed to be driven and the share driven in reality. The Commission’s draft acknowledged the discrepancy, but proposed nothing to address it until at least the end of this decade.

Now an updated draft proposes to assume a lower, more realistic share of km driven by PHEVs electrically, though it doesn’t make use of company car usage data until 2027. Company cars make up 71% of new PHEV sales.

T&E’s emissions engineer Anna Krajinska said: “We welcome the Commission’s updated draft as a step in the right direction. It is now up to the Member States to support the proposals and ensure that the gap between official and real world PHEV emissions is closed as quickly as possible. Carmakers don’t even need two years to fix this as no technological solutions are needed, only a change in production of models based on a realistic assessment of driver behaviour.

“The more false incentives PHEVs enjoy, the more it slows down the development of battery electric vehicles, which is where the real solution to cleaning up road transport lies.”

The Commission’s draft also includes a review of the proposed utility factors in 2024 and 2026 based on data collected from on-board fuel consumption metres, which are likely to give a far more comprehensive assessment of the percentage of distance driven on the electric motor. This will provide an opportunity to further amend the 2025 and 2027 utility factors based on real-world usage data from new PHEVs sold since 2021.

T&E has published a briefing document, Making PHEVs count, which sets out the research by the Fraunhofer Institute and the International Council on Clean Transportation highlighting the discrepancy between kilometres driven electrically and the official assumptions used to categorise PHEVs as “low-CO2”.

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