FIA Eurocouncil concerned at exclusion of Mobile Airconditioning Systems

Publication date: 07 September 2009

Consumers must get the right information as to how much fuel their cars consume when using air-conditioning.
 
With the vast majority of new passenger cars equipped with mobile air-conditioning systems (MAC), their fuel consumption and cost is no minor matter. German club ADAC has already done the math working out that the cheapest aircos currently cost some EUR 300 to EUR 500. The best ones go for double that price. If you are driving with a highly efficient system in normal hot conditions - for Europe - of around 28°C, the additional fuel required would be around 5% more. For low cost aircos, however, the additional fuel used is some 20%.  
 
If air-conditioning systems are not part of a new global test cycle, manufacturers will have no incentive to make more efficient systems available to consumers, argues Franco Lucchesi, FIA Deputy President Automobile Mobility and Tourism. He recently wrote to the the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations. The forum is working towards a Worldwide Harmonized Light Duty Test Procedure. Lucchesi noted that information consumers currently get about fuel consumption and CO2 emissions is based upon a test procedure that is more than 30 years old. It is also performed when the air conditioning system is turned off. "This significantly hampers the ability of consumers to have all the information necessary to purchase fuel-efficient vehicles," Lucchesi explained.
 
Even if a slightly different approach may be taken by the European Union, Wilfried Klanner, technical director at the FIA European Bureau still fears delays in getting consumers the right information about MAC fuel consumption. Klanner notes that officials in the European Commission appear to understand the need to include air-conditioning in test procedures. Internally, then, EU officials appear to favor a separate EU solution including aircos with an additional European test cycle on top of the Worldwide Harmonized Light Duty Test Procedure.
 
Whatever EU officials finally propose, the EU as a whole would have to make up its mind. "This is also a political problem," said Klanner. "Politically, there is strong influence from the car industry. Any decision would have to be made by the European Parliament and Council. This is a long process." Klanner also does not expect the Commission to come up with proposals soon. The car industry is afraid that by adding MACs to test cycles, indicated fuel consumption would be higher, thereby making environmental targets much more difficult to achieve. "This is also not the best solution as the car industry would have to carry out two tests," said Klanner.
 
Europe will follow the global test standards. Here, Klanner notes that the two-step procedure chosen by the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations would only lead to - perhaps by 2015 - a new global test procedure. Applying in Europe, too, this would not include the fuel consumption of air-conditioning systems. "The World Forum would only then restart their work bringing in air-conditioning to the test cycle. We are saying that this is wrong," said Klanner. He, too, fears that there would be no pressure on European manufacturers to introduce more efficient aircos for at least the next five years.
 
However technical harmonization of global procedures used by manufacturers to test the fuel consumption of cars may sound, it will certainly continue to impact negatively on the pockets of car drivers. "Car manufacturers may prefer to reduce total car costs by choosing low cost aircos. In the long term, though, it is the consumer who pays more due to higher fuel bills," concludes Klanner.