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Opel Denies That Zafira CO2 Emissions Exceed Official Claims by 20 Percent

It was only a matter of time before Opel, one of Europe's largest car companies, was also accused of understating the emissions of some of its models. Unlike the American EPA that's obsessed with cancerous NOx fumes, European organizations continue to focus mainly on CO2 emissions that are linked to environmental changes.
Opel Zafira 1 photo
Photo: Opel
According to Monitor, a weekly program released by Germany's ARD public service television station, the Zafira MPV exceeds the official CO2 emissions declared by Opel by 15 percent on average, though some tests showed as much as 20%.

Up to a fifth more greenhouse gasses seems like a minor problem when you consider Volkswagen's 2.0-liter TDI engine was accused of being up to 40 times more polluting than the legal limit allows.

This is yet again a case of NOx vs. CO2, as greenhouse gas emissions can be linked directly to fuel consumption, while mono-nitrogen oxides are usually problematic during cold starts. But even in Opel's case, a diesel engine is involved. The Zafira equipped with a 1.5-liter diesel engine was subjected to several laboratory tests in Switzerland.

The German automaker was quick to brush off these accusations without even a hint of uncertainty in its corporate words. Of course, it can only do that because it knows we're talking about tests carried out under certain conditions agreed upon by the European Union, not real-world conditions.

"According to certification and the Certificate of Conformity (COC) provided with the vehicle, the tested vehicle needs to adhere to a CO2 value of 119 g/km. Our own measurements referred to by Monitor show continuous values within the 10 percent tolerance framework. Monitor’s claim, that the values are 15 percent higher than the certification value, can thus only be explained by Monitor assuming a wrong certification value," Opel said in a statement to the press that you can read below.

So basically, the difference between Opel's numbers and the ones discovered in independent tests could be as small as 5%. That doesn't sound like a scandal at all, but if over-inflated tires or even skinnier ones were used to make the Zafira adhere to the regulations, that's a big no-no.

Last month, French automaker Renault was also accused by German environmental lobby group DUH that the Espace MPV produced toxic fumes 25 times over the legal limit, and this time we're not talking about CO2. The same DUH group has also found the Zafira is 17 times over the limit.

Back in October, the University of Applied Sciences in Bern, Switzerland, strapped the Zafira to an FWD test bench and found that it was within its 80 mg/km of NOx limit set by Euro 6 regulations. But when the rear wheels were turning as well, the numbers were 2 to 4 times higher.

Opel described these findings as being "false and unfounded." But no matter what the automaker says, an air of uncertainty hangs over it and every other major diesel seller right now. If Volkswagen can barely survive the Dieselgate scandal, defeat devices (if they exist) could spell the end for Opel.
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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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