- Victor Franco, PhD from the Jaume I, has participated in the investigation that has led the US to uncover fraud
- Ensures that the problem of harmful emissions of diesel in Europe 'is very serious' by the more lax legislation
Vicente Franco, industrial engineer and PhD from the Universitat Jaume I (UJI), has participated in the research conducted by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) that produced the report that led to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) United States to discover that Volkswagen had installed special software for "tweaking" emissions in some of its diesel cars. As reported by the academic institution in a statement, the situation has led to the German company to recognize that he had acted "dishonestly" and announce the reservation of paras 7.300 million to cover the costs of repairing a problem affecting 11 million vehicles worldwide. These fees would be in addition to fines of up to 18,000 million dollars that could be faced. Vicente Franco, after finishing his doctoral work at the research center of the European Commission in Ispra (Italy), directed by Professor of Engineering and head of the Design Engineering Group UJI Sari Vidal joined in 2013 the research team of the ICCT in Europe, where he works in its headquarters in Berlin. Former student at UJI explains that the "scandal" of Volkswagen has been uncovered following a study by the ICCT to investigate differences between emissions from diesel vehicles in the US and Europe. For this study, roadside emissions tests on three vehicles (two Volkswagen and BMW) in collaboration with the University of West Virginia were made. Discovering that emissions from vehicles Volkswagen exceeded "40 times" emission levels of nitrogen oxides (NOX) registered in the laboratory during testing shall Franco stressed that alerted the environmental control agencies and California United States, "which immediately launched an investigation which is what has now become public." Serious problem in Europe Parallel to this research, have implemented a European study "that analyzes more than 140 hours of on-road emissions data from 12 different vehicles, and shows that the problem of harmful emissions of diesel in Europe is very serious, and that urgent action from European authorities to remedy is necessary, "he explained Franco, responsible for directing the work of ICCT on the situation of emissions in road-art diesel cars in Europe. Doctorate at the UJI highlights the problem in Europe is that legislation on the emission of nitrogen oxides, gases that have been proven harmful to health, by diesel vehicles is "much looser than in the United States." "This is compounded by the fact that the percentage of diesel cars is much higher," he added. In the US, diesel vehicles account for 2% of total sales, and two out of three cars of this type are Volkswagen, so that after this controversy, "it is expected that the percentage still be reduced further," he noted the institution. However, in Europe, 53% of the cars sold are diesel, so the problem of emissions is "much higher." In this sense, Vicente Franco has lamented the "lack of an agency at European level comparable to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the United States powers" which was in this case taking the research that has uncovered the "bad practices "of Volkswagen.