ACEA

Technical report on future Euro 6 on-board diagnostic (OBD) requirements

Ricardo has published an independent report and assessment of information to support the necessary legislative process to confirm the future Euro 6 OBD* thresholds. The capability of sensor technology and technology currently under development to achieve reliable and robust detection of failures at the Euro 6 OBD thresholds which have been proposed by the Commission, but which the Commission notes should be subject to impact assessment by September 2010, are assessed in the report.

ACEA is of the opinion that the feasibility of technical measures to monitor against the proposed Euro 6 OBD thresholds must be reviewed as soon as possible in order to support the legislative process that will decide and implement the appropriate Euro 6 OBD thresholds while also providing sufficient industrial lead-time for compliance.

The Ricardo report details the procedures and results of tests that were carried out by members of ACEA within confidential OBD development programs with their suppliers, in order to evaluate and assess the feasibility of technical solutions needed to monitor against the Euro 6 OBD thresholds proposed by the Commission and within the available lead-times running up to the Euro 6 emissions stage which is mandatory from 2014.

* The On-Board Diagnostic (OBD) system monitors (for a vehicle’s useful life) vehicle emission control functions and is able to store information on the vehicle concerning emission control system performance, inform the driver of any system malfunction that will lead to high emissions and allow downloading of the stored data for off-vehicle interogation to aid fault finding and recitifcation of faults. OBD has been mandatory since Euro 3 and the technology has improved. The expected much lower OBD thresholds to apply in Euro 6 will require major improvements to monitoring techniques and improved emission control equipment.

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