Volkswagen has announced that it will be fitting particulate filters on its cars that are powered by a petrol engine starting in 2017. This move alone, they say, will be responsible for a soot reduction of up to 90 percent. Under this plan every new Volkswagen sold in 2022 will have particulate filters installed, including those of its subsidiaries like Audi and Skoda.
“Following increases in efficiency and lower CO₂ output, we are now bringing about a sustained reduction in the emission levels of our modern petrol engines by fitting particulate filters as standard,” said Dr Ulrich Eichhorn, Head of Group Research and Development at Volkswagen Group.
It doesn’t really take much of a cynic to label this announcement as an attempt by the German automaker to clean up it’s act (excuse the pun) in the wake of the ‘dieselgate’ emissions cheating scandal that rocked the company’s reputation and financials when it broke in September 2015.
Petrol engines generally do not produce nearly as much harmful particulates and so do not have special filters incorporated into its exhaust assembly to weed them out. Volkswagen’s thinking here is that it may as well pre-empt and prevent any future allegation of its petrol engines being unusually damaging to the environment the way its diesel engine are found to be.
Typically, these types are fitted to vehicles with diesel engines due to the much higher levels of particulates that are emitted compared to petrol combustion engines. It’s the dark soot that you may occasionally see exiting a diesel car or truck – the sure sign of a congested and ineffective filter that needs replacing.
From June 2017, the statement continues, Volkswagen will commit to having particulate filters installed on new cars powered by its 1.4-litre TSI petrol engine such as the new second-generation Tiguan as well as the 2.0-litre TFSI unit in the upcoming Audi A5.
Volkswagen plans to implement the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) filter in this blanket announcement. It’s a type of catalytic system that mainly uses urea to chemically alter the harmful NOx gases into more benign elements such as nitrogen, water vapour and some deposits of carbon dioxide. Mercedes-Benz uses a similar filter system, as does PSA filters in Peugeot and Citroen vehicles fitted with its BlueHDi-line of diesel engines.
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