Fears new emission rules for vans could discourage fuel efficiency initiatives

The issue is likely to affect Luton and box vans that are widely used by businesses, warns Eddie Parker, product manager for LCVs at leasing firm Arval UK.

He said: “Features designed to reduce the drag of the van can have a very worthwhile impact on fuel consumption, perhaps 3-5%.

“However, this fact is not recognised in the WLTP data produced for body builders, which only consider the frontal area of the vehicle. This approach doesn’t recognise the value of streamlining.”

There are concerns that while streamlined designs will bring real-world fuel efficiency benefits, there is no official recognition of their impact, which could affect levels of adoption.

“If the measures undertaken by body builders to improve fuel consumption are not recognised in the WLTP figures, then there is no widely recognised third party evidence of the positive effects of streamlining, which could have an effect on levels of adoption,” he said.

Despite these concerns, he added that WLTP should be positive for fleets overall, by providing a valuable guide to how a vehicle will perform in the real world.

Arval UK, owned by BNP Paribas, funds more than 165,000 cars and vans in the UK. Globally, Arval operates in 29 countries with a total leased fleet of nearly 1.2 million vehicles.

It is a founding member of the Element-Arval Global Alliance, whose members manage a fleet of 3 million vehicles in 50 countries.