PSA says all vehicles now WLTP compliant as Daimler trains dealerships

29 August 2018

PSA Group has confirmed that all of its vehicles are now compliant with WLTP protocols, ahead of the 1 September deadline for all vehicle manufacturers.

WLTP is a more rigorous and longer test developed to better reflects real driving customers’ consumption and emissions than the previous test NEDC. From September, all models on sale will have to have gone through the procedure, which features stricter targets on emissions outputs. The test also includes a Real Driving Emissions (RDE) portion, which sees emissions measured in actual road-driving conditions.

Gilles Le Borgne, executive vice president for quality and engineering at Groupe PSA, confirms: ‘Our technological choices to treat pollutant emissions, such as SCR for all diesel engines launched in 2013 and more recently the GPF for gasoline engines with direct injection, allow us to offer to our customers compliant and environmentally friendly vehicles; and to keep our leadership on reducing emissions.’

The French manufacturing group says it has publicly supported the implementation of this WLTP procedure. Also, since 2016, PSA Group has demonstrated unique transparency by publishing on Peugeot, Citroën and DS website, the fuel consumption data of more than 1,000 models in real driving conditions and later on NOx and PN emissions data. Customers, then well informed, can also set up their model and usage parameters to check their car’s fuel consumption under their own use. 

Some manufacturers are struggling with WLTP. Volkswagen (VW) has suggested that the new procedure will cause production bottlenecks, while Daimler has said that the test will cause problems with its Q3 financial results.

Meanwhile, Daimler brand Mercedes-Benz is to hold some workshops with its retail network in the UK to educate them on WLTP, to ensure customer confusion about the new emissions figures published with each vehicle can be cleared up by salespeople.

Rob East, head of fleet at Mercedes-Benz, told Automotive Management: ′I want us, as a brand, to be able to give fleet managers, leasing company and end-user drivers the right advice as we transition through what is a fundamental shift.’

The whole of Mercedes-Benz UK has already been through the training, and within the product department, there is a role focused solely on WLTP.

East said last month a ′minuscule’ number of vehicles were left to be tested and that issues ordering hybrid models were not as a result of WLTP but because it had coincided with some models transitioning from generation two to generation three technology.

You can read more about WLTP in Autovista Group’s exclusive WLTP Countdown articles