Exhaust gas measurement: an interview with Clemens Klinke (part 3/3)
Clemens Klinke is member of the board of DEKRA SE and responsible for the business unit DEKRA Automotive. In this interview, he speaks about manipulations, test procedures and challenges for car manufacturers.
The PEMS device makes manipulations regarding exhaust gas measurement significantly more difficult. (Picture: Dörte Neitzel)
Clemens Klinke (Picture: DEKRA)
In the future, how can manipulations be detected as early as possible?
“First, during the type approval procedure, it is important to pay more attention to the software status of the control units. During the type test, this information needs to be better documented and it has to be provided to the authorised testing organisation for the periodic vehicle inspection. For the Conformity-of-Production testing (CoP) of the manufacturers, their processes and test results have to be reexamined by state authorities or independent institutions more intensively. In addition, in our opinion, also random routine controls of the emission performance of cars already in use should be introduced. And of course, we need a more realistic testing procedure. We think the best way is to introduce the new testing procedure WLTP as soon as possible and to combine it with the so-called Real-Driving-Emission-Tests (RDE). The EU has decided the introduction for these two new testing procedures for September 2017.”
Is the new combination of WLTP and RDE able to prevent manipulation?
“Thanks to the portable testing device PEMS, software manipulations will be visible during the road test at the latest. The measured values are allowed to be above the values measured at the testing bench, because they get adapted using a calculation called “normalization”. If the calculated values surpass the values in practice significantly, it would soon become obvious that something is wrong.”
What will be different for car manufacturers and buyers with the introduction of the new system for exhaust gas measurement?
“So much is for sure: Some of the manufacturers will have to upgrade their models. There are hardly any alternatives for a NOx-exhaust aftertreatment technology for diesel engines. This can consist of an NOX adsorption catalyst, a SCR catalyst with AdBlue-injection, or a combination of both. Since the emission of particulate pollutants will be included in the future testing, direct injection petrol engines will also need a particle filter. Hence, the technical upgrade will most probably also mean an increase in prices for cars.”
Automated, but Safe!
At the Lausitzring in Klettwitz, Germany, DEKRA puts assistance systems and automated vehicle technologies through their paces, most recently also in urban environments on specially established city courses. These tests are of central importance – because acceptance by society depends on the safety and reliability of the systems.
