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An agreement reached at the end of last October between representatives of the European Commission, Parliament and Council will see CO2 emissions from cars and vans reduced by 100% by 2035 as part of the latest Euro 7 rules – not forgetting a shift to combat emissions produced not just from the exhaust but from brakes and tyres too. That means the European Union will be the first region to go all-electric. It may not be part of the EU any longer, but the UK has also nailed its colours to the mast, with the sale of new combustion engine vehicles ending at a similar point.
The new rules change the playing field compared to previous versions of the emissions legislation. They’re technology-neutral and place the same limits regardless of whether the vehicle uses petrol, diesel, electric or alternative fuels.
Euro 7 has six targets:
1 Better control of emissions of air pollutants from all new vehicles
By broadening the range of driving conditions that are covered by the on-road emissions tests. These will now better reflect the range of conditions that vehicles can experience across Europe, including temperatures of up to 45°C or short trips typical of daily commutes.
2 Update and tighten the limits for pollutant emissions
Limits will be tightened for lorries and buses while the lowest existing limits for cars and vans will now apply regardless of the fuel used by the vehicle. The new rules also set emission limits for previously unregulated pollutants, such as nitrous oxide from heavy-duty vehicles.
3 Regulate emissions from brakes and tyres
Euro 7 will be the first worldwide emission standards to move beyond regulating exhaust-pipe emissions to set additional limits for particulate emissions from brakes and rules on microplastic emissions from tyres. These rules will apply to all vehicles, including electric ones.
4 Ensure that new cars stay clean for longer
All vehicles will need to comply with the rules for a longer period than until now. Compliance for cars and vans will be checked until these vehicles reach 200,000km and 10 years of age. This doubles the durability requirements existing under Euro 6/VI rules (100,000km and five years of age). Similar increases will take place for buses and lorries.
5 Support the deployment of electric vehicles
The rules will regulate the durability of batteries installed in cars and vans in order to increase consumer confidence in electric vehicles. This will also reduce the need for replacing batteries early in the life of a vehicle, so reducing the need for new critical raw materials required to produce batteries.
6 Make full use of digital possibilities
Euro 7 rules will ensure that vehicles are not tampered with and emissions can be controlled by the authorities in an easy way by using sensors inside the vehicle to measure emissions throughout the lifetime of a vehicle.
The legislative change may look like a positive step, but it has riled many, including the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA).
“Extraordinarily stringent testing and boundary conditions do little to improve air quality in daily driving. Yet they heavily increase the cost of vehicles, diverting precious resources – both engineering and financial – away from the zero-emission goal. Some of the proposed limit values border on what is technically feasible,” said Sigrid de Vries, director general of ACEA.
The views expressed by de Vries have been echoed by others in the build-up to the EU stating in full what Euro 7 will mean for the automotive industry. Bosch, one of the largest Tier One suppliers, went as far as saying “initial plans for the Euro 7 regulation were so unrealistic that they risked turning environmental policy into questionable industrial policy”.
Each progression of the Euro emissions legislation has been met with some kind of reluctance, but Euro 7 is causing a real divide between the industry and legislators. If the pushback continues, could we see the first instance of the EU reining in its initial requirements, or will the automotive industry simply have to rise to the challenge and invest more heavily in its engineering teams to succeed?
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