Avoidance of driving bans: Government wants to relax diesel pollution limits

The Federal Government plans to SPIEGEL information with a group of Union and SPD MPs obviously to relax the limits for diesel vehicles. Originally, the government wanted to set the limit to 270 milligrams of nitrogen oxide per kilometer.

Only diesel vehicles that adhere to this value should be allowed to drive into city centers despite driving bans. This value should be raised to just over 350 milligrams by a corresponding regulation in the Federal Immission Control Act.

The official EU limit for Euro 5 diesel is only 180 milligrams. It must be achieved on the test bench and is relevant for the registration of the cars. In the wake of the exhaust scandal, however, it turned out that the cars emit much more pollutants in real traffic. The values ​​that the government now wants to change serve as a guideline for the introduction of driving bans.

Obviously behind the initiative is the attempt of the auto industry to avoid the retrofitting of older diesel vehicles with so-called SCR catalysts. For such a retrofit VW, BMW and Daimler had promised in the fall to pay 3000 euros per Altwagenbesitzer. The more generous limit, some manufacturers hope to be able to achieve only with cost-effective software updates.

BMW should have approached the Chancellery

Initially, BMW's management should have approached the Federal Chancellery. BMW was not ready to comment.

However, the draft amendment to the Federal Immission Control Act is already in the Parliament, where Union members have already campaigned for the relaxation of the limit values. Meanwhile SPD traffic experts in the Bundestag have been persuaded to support the initiative. Even the coalition leaders should have talked about the topic at their meeting last Wednesday in the Federal Chancellery.

Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) has already been commissioned to provide the new limit for retrofitting SCR catalytic converters. At the request of SPIEGEL and Bayerischer Rundfunk, a government spokesman pointed out that the amendment to the Immissionsschutzgesetz was "in the parliamentary procedure".

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