The sundaytimes.co.uk: Toxic truth of ‘clean’ petrol cars
Eddie Connor suffers from ‘brittle asthma’ that can be triggered by traffic pollution, leaving him struggling to breathe
BRITAIN’S most popular cars, the Ford Fiesta and Focus, have a dirty secret — the pollution emissions on some models are four times higher than shown in the laboratory-based tests under which they were approved for road use.
The Sunday Times has obtained data from on-the-road tests on three new Fords, all powered by the car maker’s prize-winning 1-litre EcoBoost petrol engine, showing they averaged 0.24 grams of nitrogen oxides (NOx) per kilometre.
This is four times the 0.06 grams maximum allowed in the European emission standards test that all petrol-driven cars must pass before they can be sold in the UK and Europe.
Ford has promoted its EcoBoost cars as economical and environmentally friendly because the engines minimise fuel consumption and emissions of CO2, a greenhouse gas.
However, the downside is that the engines produce far more NOx than similar-sized rival models from companies such as Volkswagen or Mazda.
Eddie Connor suffers from ‘brittle asthma’ that can be triggered by traffic pollution, leaving him struggling to breatheBRITAIN’S most popular cars, the Ford Fiesta and Focus, have a dirty secret — the pollution emissions on some models are four times higher than shown in the laboratory-based tests under which they were approved for road use.
The Sunday Times has obtained data from on-the-road tests on three new Fords, all powered by the car maker’s prize-winning 1-litre EcoBoost petrol engine, showing they averaged 0.24 grams of nitrogen oxides (NOx) per kilometre.
This is four times the 0.06 grams maximum allowed in the European emission standards test that all petrol-driven cars must pass before they can be sold in the UK and Europe.
Ford has promoted its EcoBoost cars as economical and environmentally friendly because the engines minimise fuel consumption and emissions of CO2, a greenhouse gas.
However, the downside is that the engines produce far more NOx than similar-sized rival models from companies such as Volkswagen or Mazda.
