The European Commission has opened two new facilities that it says will strengthen its ability to enforce new regulations on vehicle emissions.

The laboratories, located within the commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Ispra in Italy, will increase the EU body’s capacity to test emissions from cars on the EU market.

In September 2015, Volkswagen was found to have ‘gamed’ emissions levels in its vehicles in about 11 million vehicles worldwide.

‘Dieselgate’ scandal

The ‘Dieselgate’ scandal led to an overhaul of the EU vehicle-approval legislation in September 2020, introducing oversight and enforcement at EU level.

The commission says that the new laboratories will enable emissions testing in regulated and simulated real driving conditions.

Two climatic emission cells will allow testing in a wide range of ambient conditions, such as temperature, humidity and pressure, which affect the final emissions performance of the vehicle.

“With this new state-of-the-art car-emission testing facility, we are now better equipped than ever to improve air quality for European citizens, restore consumer confidence, strengthen the single market and support the global competitiveness of Europe's car industry,” said internal-market commissioner Thierry Breton.