A few days before the detailed presentation of the European Commission for the planned Euro 7 emissions standard, the Association of the European Automobile Industry (ACEA) is questioning the entire project.

From the point of view of the European car manufacturers, even an extremely tightened standard compared to the current Euro 6d standard would have little additional effect on the environment before combustion engines are to be banned anyway in 2035.

Tobias Piller

Editor in Business.

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The emission standards are not about the CO2 emissions of the cars, which are regulated by limits for the fleet of newly sold cars.

Rather, it is about the emission of pollutants such as carbon monoxide, particulate matter and, above all, nitrogen oxides in the case of diesel engines.

ACEA reports that, according to the latest studies, replacing the vehicle fleet with vehicles that meet current emission standards and switching to electric cars at the same time would reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 80 percent between 2020 and 2035.

Even extremely strict limit values ​​for nitrogen oxides with a Euro 7 standard would result in an additional reduction of 5 percent for passenger cars and an additional 2 percent for trucks compared to the previously applicable limit values ​​according to Euro 6d.

From ACEA's point of view, the reason for this is the delay before the introduction of a Euro 7 standard, which would be necessary for the development of the corresponding engines.

New cars could be much more expensive

With regard to the Euro 7 standard, there had long been fears in the automotive industry that additional requirements would require very expensive cleaning technology and could also cost several thousand euros per car.

However, the corresponding development costs would hardly be profitable if no more combustion cars could be sold by 2035 at the latest.

It was therefore expected and announced that a number of the combustion engine models currently on offer would no longer be converted to Euro 7 and would be removed from the manufacturers' range without replacement.

Above all, the range of small cars would be affected by this policy, because in this market segment further measures for exhaust gas cleaning would then make up a larger part of the sales price.

So far, no company boss in the ACEA association has dared to take an open stance against a new Euro 7 standard.

Only the head of Europe's second-largest car company, Stellantis, Carlos Tavares, has so far publicly opposed any Euro 7 standard.

With his group, however, he is in the process of leaving the ACEA association.

Other car bosses, on the other hand, shy away from the risk of making themselves unpopular with statements about Euro 7.

From the point of view of environmental associations and environmental institutes, Europe's car industry is in the process of getting the European Commission to give way to a Euro 7 standard, which will only make a few stricter regulations for passenger cars and only impose stricter regulations on truck manufacturers.