2023-10-15 10:02:01
Last Thursday, the Environment Committee of the European Parliament ratified its proposal for the Euro 7 emissions regulations, which sets the permitted levels of emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and suspended particles harmful to health.
It therefore establishes the position of the experts, which is expected to be definitively ratified in the plenary session of the European Parliament on November 9. Subsequently, it will move to the trialogue phase, in which the Council and Commission will give their approval before the standard comes into force, at the earliest in 2030.
Given that the ban on the sale of internal combustion engines is still in force in 2035 – it remains for the Commission to create a new category of vehicles that run on fuels with net neutral emissions – Euro 7 will set the thresholds allowed for the latest generation of cars. combustion.
The most important limit of the new standard is NOx. Of the 80 milligrams per kilometer for diesel engines, a new target of 60 milligrams has been set. Gasoline engines have not changed their limit, which remains at 60 mg.
Environmental associations such as Transport & Environment have stated that this measure is a “disaster”, given that it will allow manufacturers to sell less polluting Euro 6 and Euro 7 engines without changes to the technology.
In addition, a breakdown is introduced for commercial vehicles, which see their emissions limited depending on their weight. The new text sets stricter limits for buses and trucks, which go from 460 mg to 200 mg of NOx on test benches — emissions in real driving tests are more lax.
In terms of maximum terms, 36 months were approved from the entry into force of the auxiliary regulations for passenger cars and 60 months for heavy commercial vehicles. That is, the current Euro 6 limits would apply until July 1, 2030 for cars, while for trucks, they would apply until 2031, if Euro 7 is not applied before.
The committee approved establishing guarantees on the useful life of electric car batteries, with batteries that had 85% of their capacity after five years of life, and 75% after 10.
To appease the environmental ambitions of environmental groups, the proposal – led by the conservative, liberal and European PP groups – proposed establishing measures that also affect electric vehicles, beyond the end of combustion cars.
One example is regenerative braking particles, whose limits were reduced from the original proposal’s 7 mg per kilometer to just 3 mg.
On the other hand, the creation of an ‘electronic passport’ for vehicles was requested to be updated with each technical review. This should include data such as energy consumption, battery status, emissions limits or technical information.
In addition, it is proposed that an on-board monitoring system be introduced to recurrently check parameters such as exhaust emissions or fuel and energy consumption in real driving conditions.
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