The Non-Governmental Organization Transport & Environment has commissioned Emissions Analytics to test several hybrid cars, specialized in the control of pollutants emitted by cars in real conditions. In short, because that is the scandal that Dieselgate brought to light five years ago: the manufacturers have taken as a real basis the emissions obtained under special laboratory conditions, but in daily operation there are very different – much larger – actual emissions from these cars.

Hybrid vehicles are driven by two engines, on the one hand thermal motors that consume fossil fuel and, on the other hand, electric motors that use battery-charged electric power. And it happens that the emissions are very different depending on the conditions of circulation at each moment and according to the level of charge of the battery. The Transport & Environment report reveals that "in the best conditions, with the fully charged battery, hybrid cars have emitted 28% and 89% more CO2 than announced by manufacturers".

But it's worse when the battery is empty or the car is running fast. For example, the Mitsubishi Outlander, the best-selling car in Europe among hybrids, announces an emission of 46 grams of CO2 per kilometer, but as it circulates charging the battery, it emits 164 grams. The hybrid BMW X5 announces in its approval that it emits 32 grams of CO2 per kilometre, while it actually emits 254. Volvo XC60 replaces the 71 grams it declares by 242.

To round off the in-depth study, Transport & Environnement has asked the European authorities to know and control the actual emissions of hybrid cars that are increasingly being sold in the necessary change, because, moreover, they are defrauding the objective of the alleged CO2 emissions, thus losing the huge amounts of money that public administrations spend on subsidies to car manufacturers.