The EU’s new emissions standard comes without any significant tightening for the industry. Stricter emissions rules only apply to buses and trucks. There are now also requirements for the service life of batteries in electric cars.
Cars, buses and other vehicles in the EU should in future produce fewer substances that are harmful to the environment and health. Negotiators from the European Parliament and the EU states have agreed in Brussels on the new Euro 7 pollutant standard, as both sides announced.
The new rules are intended to regulate pollutants caused by vehicles more strictly than before, but there is no significant tightening for the automotive industry.
What is new is that substances harmful to health such as fine dust, which can be caused by tire wear or braking, will also be regulated in the future. This means that the regulations also apply to electric cars and hydrogen vehicles.
According to parliament, minimum requirements for the lifespan of the batteries of electric and hybrid vehicles should also be introduced. These stipulate that the batteries must still have at least 72 percent of their original charging capacity after eight years or 160,000 kilometers.
Emission rules for cars remain unchanged
In addition, every vehicle should come with an environmental passport that contains information about, for example, fuel and electricity consumption or the lifespan of the battery. Drivers should receive up-to-date information about this via the systems in the car.
Until now, exhaust gases have been the focus of the Euro standards. Euro 6 previously regulated nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), particles, hydrocarbons and methane as well as ammonia for trucks and buses. Euro 7 stipulates stricter rules for exhaust emissions – but according to reports only for buses and trucks.
The states and parliament agreed to retain the currently applicable Euro 6 values for cars and small vans. In addition, according to Parliament, the Euro 6 test conditions should continue to apply to all types of vehicles.
The Commission’s proposals have been significantly weakened
The revision of the limit values is based on a proposal from the EU Commission last year, which, however, was significantly weakened by parliament and the federal states with a view to exhaust emissions from cars. The proposed rules did not meet with widespread approval from either the European Parliament or the EU countries. Among other things, the rules for cars should come into force in 2025 and for trucks and buses in 2027.
In some cases, the proposals even went too far for the Environment Ministry, led by Green Party politician Steffi Lemke; in particular, the proposed introduction deadlines were too short for her.
The compromise that has now been agreed stipulates that cars and small vans will only come into force 30 months after final adoption by the European Parliament and the individual member states, and that buses and trucks will only come into force four years after final adoption.
“Determined to implement all requirements”
Car manufacturers had previously protested violently against the plans. A new emissions standard would mean significant additional costs for companies that would actually have to invest in alternatives such as electric cars, explained the European manufacturers’ association Acea. The EU has decided to phase out combustion engines by 2035.
The German auto industry has now said that the new standard will help to further reduce emissions from road traffic. Although some of the requirements are very ambitious, “our industry is determined to implement all requirements,” said the President of the Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), Hildegard Müller. The Euro 7 decision meaningfully combines the improvement of air quality and feasibility for industry.
Environmentalists, however, criticized that the planned regulations hardly went beyond the current Euro 6 standard. Under pressure from the Greens, the federal government campaigned for stricter emissions standards, but was outvoted. Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing from the FDP also insisted on taking e-fuels into account, but there was no majority for this either in parliament or among the EU countries.
Shared response from politics
CDU MEP Jens Gieseke, transport policy spokesman for the CDU/CSU group and negotiator for the Christian Democratic EPP group, said the rules would achieve better air quality. “At the same time, we are also preventing a disproportionate burden on industry, which already has to cope with the switch to electromobility.” The balancing act between health protection and maintaining competitiveness was successful.
Green MP Michael Bloss described the negotiation result as a missed opportunity. “If the EU and Germany want to continue to set the gold standards for industry worldwide, we need forward-looking rules that promote the further development of the industry.” Otherwise the standards would soon be set in other regions of the world.
According to studies by the European Environment Agency and the so-called Joint Research Center, road traffic was responsible for 39 percent of harmful nitrogen oxide emissions and eleven percent of total fine dust emissions in 2018. According to the EU Commission, in 2018 more than 70,000 deaths in the EU were due to long-term exposure to fine dust and nitrogen oxide-related air pollution from road traffic.