ACR-News

“KBA confirms once again that its testing produced no adequate evidence of a serious risk related to HFO-1234yf.' Thierry Vanlancker, president of DuPont Chemicals & Fluoroproducts, has said following the publication of the final report on testing of HFO-1234yf by Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority, the Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (KBA).
'The KBA report proves our earlier statements that it is only under extreme testing conditions that do not represent real-life crash scenarios that the refrigerant could be made to ignite in a few instances. The results of the KBA testing confirm DuPont's high level of confidence that the refrigerant can be used safely in automotive air conditioning. This has been proven by years of cooperative testing conducted by automakers from around the world.

'All industry-sponsored risk assessments have determined that flammability related to HFO-1234yf does not present a real-life safety concern. Individual car-makers also have conducted testing that confirms this. Automakers from around the world working under SAE International concluded that the risk of vehicle fire caused by HFO-1234yf is only three chances in a trillion.

'A growing number of automakers are using HFO-1234yf in their cars on the road in the European Union today, in compliance with the EU's Mobile Air Conditioning (MAC) Directive. Several automakers have adopted the refrigerant for cars being sold in the United States to take advantage of credits that encourage the use of products with reduced climate impact. We expect that the KBA's final report will prompt others to move more rapidly to adopt the product.'

Daimler's stance since the results of the final KBA report has not changed.

'Since the results of the final KBA report are the same as of the preliminary,' said a spokesman for Daimler, 'it doesn't change our position at all. The KBA states that the safety level of vehicles using R1234yf is worse in comparison to R134a. And that doesn't match with the high safety requirements of Mercedes-Benz.

'That's why we started the development of CO2 air conditioning systems and we are putting a lot effort in this.'