Reduce your fleet emissions and costs – protect the health of drivers

Find out how the AIR Index can help fleet managers reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) by choosing the cleanest vehicles to deliver long-term benefits.

De-risk your fleet emissions

The effective way to strengthen procurement and control your costs.

Reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) for fleets by choosing the cleanest vehicles to deliver significant long-term benefits.

Most fleets use CO2 data as the primary filter to segment vehicle choice but this doesn’t address the potential future operational costs as cities control access based on vehicle emissions.

Protect vehicle occupants and professional drivers

Exposure to high levels of pollutants can cause a range of serious health issues, but there has been little awareness of how effective the ventilation system of a vehicle is to prevent external pollutants entering the cabin.

The Cabin AIR Index is the first rating system to reveal accurately how much pollution enters a vehicle compared to the outside air. We have developed it to inform and empower drivers, passengers and fleet owners with the facts about the protection offered by ventilation systems and filters in the cars they travel in.

Our research shows that the difference in particle reduction offered by filters costing between €10 and €26 is remarkable, and the effectiveness is not related to the price. In the same car, with the same ventilation system, one filter will reduce 30% of the particles from outside, whilst another will reduce 82%. By way of reference the cheapest and most expensive filters BOTH achieved the same level of reduction (48%).

Why the AIR Index?

The AIR Index provides fleet managers with a trusted, transparent and independent rating of vehicles from A-to-E of actual NOx and CO2 emissions, and the effectiveness of the ventilation system to reduce the exposure of vehicle occupants to harmful pollutants.

The vehicles are searchable by fuel economy in Mpg and consumption in litres per 100km, Euro standard and fuel type to inform planning decisions and help to select the cleanest vehicles, minimising the total cost of ownership. Fleet policy can be strengthened by using the A-to-E rating during procurement to match city policies where the vehicles operate.

All cars tested for the AIR Index meet the European emission standards required at the time of delivery, such as Euro 4, 5 or 6. The AIR Index A-to-E rating provides a deeper, more realistic, independent assessment of the actual and relative emissions of each car and van.

Future-proof your decision making

Upgrade your vehicle polices to control and reduce risk.

Regulation to improve air quality by controlling access to towns and cities based on NOx emissions is already in use and being adopted rapidly. CO2 and Euro standards don’t provide an accurate measure of on-road NOx emissions and can leave fleets relying on these alone exposed to increased risk.

Effective management of car choice by NOx emissions is critical. Access to towns and cities for only the cleanest vehicles will increase operational costs and reduce the residual value of vehicles which fall outside the permitted air quality levels.

The AIR Index provides fleet managers with a reliable, trusted and independent framework to inform fleet policy and control TCO. The scientific results of on-road emissions reveal that some diesel engines actually produce lower NOx emissions than petrol engine variants and the AIR Index provides clarity when developing a robust fleet policy.

The AIR Alliance has now commissioned a programme of vehicle and filter testing for the Cabin AIR Index and results will be added to the AIR Index periodically.

Integrate on-road test results with your systems

Need to integrate your data with the AIR Index?

The AIR Index is a global first. It is the only system that provides comparative emissions ratings based on standardised on-road testing.

The AIR Index rating categorises vehicles in bands, based upon NOx emissions and CO2 data measured during on-road tests. Testing each vehicle in urban conditions to the same test provides comparable NOx emissions levels that more accurately reflect the contribution to urban air quality than simulated tests performed in a laboratory. It also provides full comparability between vehicle makes and models, both new and old.

The data is publicly available, transparent and free of charge. Fleet managers are offered access to the database via API to enable effective decision making to improve air quality.