Esemka car fails emission test, Try Again in The Next Test

The Esemka car assembled by SMKN 2 vocational school students in Surakarta has failed to pass the 11th and final test that it needed to pass to be declared roadworthy and therefore eligible for mass production.

The car, which grabbed the limelight when Surakarta mayor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo announced that he would use it as his official vehicle at the end of last year, did not meet the emissions threshold set by the Environment Minister.

Transportation Ministry spokesman Bambang S. Ervan confirmed on Thursday that the car had not met the threshold stipulated in a 2009 environmental ministerial decree on new vehicle emissions. “It doesn’t mean that we won’t grant the car a license, but the car should undergo another emission test, otherwise we can’t issue the certificate of the type test,” Bambang said on Thursday in Jakarta.

Surakarta deputy mayor FX Hadi Rudyatmo said in Surakarta that he was optimistic that the car could still secure the certificate. “I’m not disappointed. We can fix this,” said Rudy, who drove the car from Surakarta to Jakarta himself last week.

The car had already passed 10 tests, including brake, headlight, turning radius, horn, side slop, weight, speedometer, dimension and construction tests. The decree sets the carbon monoxide threshold at 5 grams/km and the threshold for hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides (HC+NOx) at 0.7 grams/km.

“The Esemka car’s rates are double that,” Bambang said. An Esemka technician, Dwi Budimartono, acknowledged that the car did not have a catalytic converter, which cost Rp 12 million (US$1,320) each. “We don’t have to change anything — we just need to add the catalytic converter,” he said.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/03/01/esemka-car-fails-emission-test.html