Why Nigeria not affected by VW 7.5 million faulty car recall – NADDC

Users of Volkwagen cars in Nigeria are most unlikely to be affected by the German manufacturer’s on-going recall of 7.5 million faulty cars globally, Aminu Jalal, director-general, National Automotive Design and Development Counicl (NADDC) told BusinessDay in an exclusive interview.

Jalal explained that Nigeria’s Volkswagen market wouldn’t be affected  because only a small percentage of cars in Nigeria have diesel engines, unlike in many other countries that are heavily affected.

Volkswagen is being engulfed by a growing crisis over its attempt to make millions of diesel cars appear cleaner than they are.

The scandal broke recently, when U.S. regulators said the German company had programmed some 500,000 vehicles to emit lower levels of harmful emissions in official tests than on the roads.

Volkswagen then stunned investors by admitting that the problem was much bigger than that: internal investigations had found significant discrepancies in 11 million vehicles worldwide.

“The VW cheating on diesel car emissions would not have a significant impact on Nigeria because only about 1% of our cars have diesel engines,” Jalal informed BusinessDay.

“Volkswagen  authorised dealers do not sell diesel cars as diesel costs more than petrol in Nigeria. The available diesel cars were imported as used vehicles and are few. As a result, diesel trucks and buses are not affected,” he added.

With strong presence in many parts of Europe ,and other parts of the world,  Volkswagen has been in the eye of the storm,and struggling to repair its image which has been badly damaged by  revelations about the installation of “defeat device” software in diesel-powered cars.

Jalal further explained, “Our vehicle emission standards are at Euro 2 level. We could not have stricter standards as our diesel Sulphur standards, at 3,000 ppm (parts per million), could not support higher standards. We need to reduce Sulphur levels to 50 ppm. We are working with the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and other stakeholders to that effect.”

The NOx emitted during road driving is up to 40 times that emitted during the test. VW was doing that probably because the use of the emission control system causes a marginal increase in fuel consumption and a marginal decrease in acceleration.

Further findings reveal that between year 2000 and 2014, there has been a great reduction in NOx emissions from diesel cars required by the standards.

European countries concerned with global warming, encouraged the use of diesel cars (as they produce less carbon than petrol cars) by cutting taxes on diesel fuel. The sales of diesel cars moved from 15% of new cars in 1990 to 25% in 1995 and 50% now. NOx and PM were to be controlled by the emission standards.

The emission standards are tested with the vehicle stationary, while the wheels are turned by a dynamometer, with speeds that mimic real life driving.  It was found that these dynamometer simulations were unrealistic, as results from road tests are always higher. The European Union therefore planned to start road tests in 2017.

Harrison Edeh