Owners of older diesel cars are unsettled and annoyed. From February 1st, there will be a driving ban for vehicles in the Euro 4 emission class on and within the Mittlerer Ring in Munich. From October onwards, the diesel ban will also apply to Euro 5 class cars Diesel can no longer do much in the city. Petrol engines are not affected by the ban.
The CSU member of parliament Robert Brannekamper from Bogenhausen does not want to accept the ban and will file a lawsuit against it after the public holidays at the Munich administrative court. He drives a ten-year-old Land Rover that already has 170,000 kilometers on the clock, but which he intends to drive at least another 100,000 kilometers. He mainly uses the car on weekends for family and business trips. In the city, says Brannekamper, he mainly travels by bike.
100 visitors came to an event against the driving ban
The lawsuit is currently being prepared. And he probably won’t be the only plaintiff. On Monday evening, the MP, together with the automobile club “Mobil in Deutschland”, invited around 100 visitors to an event against the driving ban at the Hanns Seidel Foundation. In addition to a speed limit, “Mobile in Germany” also strictly rejects the diesel driving ban – it is disproportionate, antisocial and counterproductive. In Munich, 140,000 vehicles are affected. The car club now wants to support potential plaintiffs.
Brannekamper says he has received many calls from concerned seniors who use their car to visit the doctor in the city, for example, and otherwise rarely drive it. “Should you buy a new car when you’re 80?”
The city of Munich, which has been given responsibility for clean air by the Free State, sees the driving ban as the only way to quickly comply with the EU-wide limit values for nitrogen dioxide. In 2021, they were exceeded at four measuring points, the highest on Landshuter Allee. The Verkehrsclub Deutschland and the Deutsche Umwelthilfe initially sued the Free State, and the state capital inherited the legal dispute, so to speak. The driving ban is now the result of a comparison.