In the wake of the emissions scandal, which rocked Volkswagen last year, the UK government is going to undertake rigorous vehicle re-testing. It is expected to cost the taxpayer in the region of £650,000 according to the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport.

It wont just be Volkswagens that will be tested though, vehicles that represent a sampling of the cars in Britain will be tested, which could include the Ford Fiesta, Nissan Qashqai and the Volkswagen Golf. This is also in both petrol and diesel variants. The testing environment is said to include a real world dynamic, to try and build bridges with consumers and the motor industry. The government in the UK is also working with their German counterparts to cover even more cars; there may even future collaboration with the UK and other countries.

As a side to emissions testing, the tests will be designed to look for the infamous ‘defeat device’ which caused the scandal with Volkswagen. The UK has been at the forefront to change the existing emissions testing to bring an element of real world driving and conditions to the test.

One move that may surprise the public is that the funding has come from the UK government rather than the actual manufacturers at fault themselves. This was done however to ensure the new emissions tests remain independent which will in turn build confidence for consumers with the motor trade, at least that is the aim.

Once these tests are complete the results will be published from the Transport Secretary with progress updates by the end of 2016. It has also been announced that in 2017 a new testing system for emissions will be rolled out across Europe in response to the scandal. Once the findings have been published it will be interesting to see how this affects said cars values that have been using defeat devices and whether car insurance premiums could rise because of this. Will be interesting to see once the report has been published.