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Exhaust Emissions Testing

Before passenger cars can be type approved for sale in the European Union they must meet certain standards for exhaust emissions. The more stringent Euro 4 limits specified in Directive 98/69, were introduced on 1st January 2005 and became fully effective on 1st January 2007. The test was modified for Euro 3 and 4 to include measurement of pollutants from the moment the engine starts. In the previous test, measurement commenced after the engine had started and idled for 40 seconds. The new limits, shown below, represent a 30% reduction over the earlier Euro 2 limits, although this is not obvious from the figures due to the more severe test. As with the fuel consumption tests a single vehicle representative of a particular version is tested.

Because of the nature of testing procedures the type approval emission figures listed in the tables should be treated with caution and specifically should not be used to rank a number of vehicles for which similar figures are quoted.

Tables of Emission Limits relating to vehicles listed in this booklet

Table 1 Cars not exceeding 2.5 tonnes laden

	Number of seats	Fuel	Directive	Limit values (gm/km)					Implementation Dates
	Number of seats	Fuel	Directive	CO	HC	NOx	HC+NOx	PM	Type Approval	In-use
Euro 4	up to 9	P	98/69/EC	1.00	0.10	0.08	-	-	01/01/05	01/01/06
	up to 9	D	98/69/EC	0.50	-	0.25	0.30	0.025	01/01/05	01/01/06

Table 2: Heavy motor car (more than 2.5 tonnes laden or more than 6 seats). Unladen weight between 1151 and 1600kg

	Number of seats	Fuel	Directive	Limit values (gm/km)					Implementation Dates
	Number of seats	Fuel	Directive	CO	HC	NOx	HC+NOx	PM	Type Approval	In-use
Euro 4	up to 9	P	98/69/EC	1.81	0.13	0.10	-	-	01/01/06	01/01/07
	up to 9	D	98/69/EC	0.63	-	0.33	0.39	0.04	01/01/06	01/01/07

Table 3: Heavy motor car (more than 2.5 tonnes fully laden or more than 6 seats). Unladen weight over 1600kg

	Number of seats	Fuel	Directive	Limit values (gm/km)					Implementation Dates
	Number of seats	Fuel	Directive	CO	HC	NOx	HC+NOx	PM	Type Approval	In-use
Euro 4	up to 9	P	98/69/EC	2.27	0.16	0.11	-	-	01/01/06	01/01/07
	up to 9	D	98/69/EC	0.74	-	0.39	0.46	0.06	01/01/06	01/01/07

Key: P- Petrol, D - Diesel, di - direct injection, CO - Carbon Monoxide
HC - Hydrocarbons, NOx -Oxides of Nitrogen, PM - Particulate mass

Note: The test procedure for Euro 3 and Euro 4 is more severe than that for Euro 1 and Euro 2. This results in some emission levels having an apparent increase when in fact they are more tightly controlled.

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