The European Commission has funded a project called The Inspection of In-Use Cars in Order to Attain Minimum Emissions of Pollutants and Optimum Energy Efficiency. The project was jointly undertaken by LAT/AUTH (Greece) -the coordinator of the consortium -, INRETS (France), TNO (The Netherlands), TÜV Rheinland (Germany) and TRL (United Kingdom). Moreover, three other institutes collaborated with the consortium, on the basis of nationally sponsored projects: MTC (Sweden), IVL (Sweden) and VKM-Thd (Austria).

Basic aim of the project was to investigate and develop a series of alternative solutions cost/effective procedures for the inspection of passenger cars in terms of their actual emissions and fuel consumption. Especially in the case of three-way catalyst (TWC) and diesel vehicles it was felt necessary to investigate procedures, which have a larger potential in detecting bad maintenance of the vehicles. In this respect it was examined if emission measurements under load may be better at identifying faults than measurements at idle.

For each particular solution, its cost was assessed (covering installation and operation) and its effectiveness estimated as anticipated reduction in the actual and future emissions of the fleet.

Reports covered include:

• Main report (Findings in summary, recommendations by the institutes involved)
• Detailed Report 1 – Review of Short tests
• Detailed Report 2 - Development of short driving cycles 5 Short driving cycles for the inspection of in-use cars. Representative European driving cycles for the assessment of the I/M schemes
• Detailed Report 3 – Test protocol and average results of long and short emission tests for passenger cars
• Detailed Report 4 – Technical Specifications for Transient Short Tests
• Detailed Report 5 – Short test evaluation
• Detailed report 6 – Remote sensing
• Detailed report 7 – Cost Effectiveness of I/M

URL: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/pollutants/inusecars.htm