After permanent delays since the end of 2021, the European Commission is ready to adopt the new emission restrictions, which are expected to be the last ones before the ban on the sale of combustion engines arrives in 2035.
Thus, more severe parameters will be set on suspended particles, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen oxides (NOx) on the latest thermal propellants in Europe. Something that is scheduled to come into effect no earlier than 2025.
The current rule, Euro 6, came into effect in 2014 – it has been progressively tightened with revisions ever since and has been the direct cause of the diesel engine emissions scandal of 2015.
The tentative parameters of the Euro 7 discussions had been leaked, and the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) has described it as “excessively severe” and “the end of combustion engines”.
Although the last time the decision to adopt the new regulations was delayed (July 2021) the tentative date was set “from October 12 to 26” this year, even if it gets approved this month, it would take 3+ years for them to come into force.
European commissioners have several times acknowledged the delays in adopting Euro 7 and named quite a few factors: the complexity of creating standards for different vehicles at the same time was the key reason, but among many others, there was also the need to recognize the priorities of the different players and even the Fit For 55 emissions targets, which couldn’t be foreseen when Euro 7 was started to be defined.
While manufacturers consider the changed rules very strict, because they plan to turn production slowly but steadily electric, the Commission says that Euro 7 goes far beyond passenger car emissions. “They also affect industrial and commercial vehicles, which will not yet be fully electrified in 2035.”
According to Brussels, 300,000 European citizens died due to air pollution in 2019.
