The figures will first be produced for the new Astra and will be published in addition to the official fuel consumption and CO2 information.

“The events and discussions in the last weeks and months have shown that there is a tremendous focus on the automotive industry and it is now time to act based on the learnings,” said Opel Group CEO Dr Karl-Thomas Neumann. “It is obvious to me that the diesel discussion is a turning point. The world is not as it was before. We cannot ignore this and it is in the hands of the automotive industry to change the perception of the new reality.”

Opel added that its diesel engineers have recently started working on a way to improve NOx emission improvements on SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) diesel applications as part of a voluntary initiative for the Real Driving Emissions (RDE) legislation which becomes mandatory in 2017.

"Our analyses in the last months show that we have no devices that tell us if our vehicles are in a test cycle or not. Nevertheless, we also believe that we are capable of further improving the effectiveness of reduction of oxides of nitrogen emissions from our Euro 6 diesels with SCR technology and so we are making an improvement towards future RDE specifications,” added Dr Neumann. “We will use SCR as the mainstream system for Euro 6 diesel going forward as we continue to develop improved technologies to explore higher efficiencies.”

The Euro 6 SCR will also be available retrospectively for 43,000 Zafira Tourer, Insignia and Cascada vehicles.

Dr Neumann also called for improved transparency between automakers and authorities in Europe: “In the USA, the companies disclose their complete calibration philosophy to authorities. I would like to see us embrace this practice in Europe.”

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