The European Commission presented the proposal for the new standards that serve to combat pollution: the goal is to obtain a drastic reduction of all harmful emissions into the air and increase the presence of clean vehicles, improving air quality and protecting the health of citizens and the environment.
The new standard for cars will call 7 euros: the rules have become increasingly stringent for cars with petrol and diesel combustion engines, but electric cars will also have to monitor the particulate matter that comes from the brakes and tyres.
Euro 7: when it enters into force
According to the proposal made by the European Commission, the entry into force of the new Euro 7 standards for cars is expected fromJuly 1, 2025. The date set ignores requests from various manufacturers who have tried to postpone the entry into force of the new standards by at least a year.
With Euro 7, the European Commission foresees a 35% reduction of NOx emissions compared to the current Euro 6 standard: the threshold will drop from 80 mg/km to 60 mg/km. A tightening is also on the way on the particulate matter produced by brakes and tires: it will have to be reduced by 27% and will also apply to electric vehicles.
The entry into force of the new Euro 7 legislation involves even more sophisticated emission control. Monitoring will be constant throughout the life cycle thanks to the systems installed directly on the cars, capable of collecting data in real time: the check, therefore, will not only be carried out during the manufacturing and homologation phases of the cars.
Different situation for heavy vehicles: the new standards will enter into force two years later, on 1 July 2027. For heavy vehicles an even higher reduction in emission limits is envisaged: it will reach 80% less. Furthermore, for electric cars, the duration of the batteries and their impact on the environment will also be evaluated.
What changes with the arrival of Euro 7
The new legislation will have repercussions on the entire European automotive sector: it is very likely that i new standards lead to a further increase in the list prices of the cars. In fact, in order to be able to comply with the new rules on nitrogen oxides, car manufacturers will have to adopt more efficient filtering systems for the treatment of exhaust gases.
At the same time the manufacturers, to compensate for the performance gap caused by the introduction of the new systems, will be forced to focus on more powerful engines, characterized by a higher displacement: complying with the regulations could have a higher cost for automotive companies and consequently on the final price for users.
The problem of costs has been tackled by the European Commission itself which foresees an estimated impact of between 90 and 150 euros on prices of cars and about 2,500 euros for heavy vehicles. Single Market Commissioner Thierry Breton called the measure “balanced and necessary to protect the climate”.
Euro 7 represents a further instrument for safeguarding the environment by the European Union which has already decided to place end of the production of diesel and petrol cars in 2035: from that date, only zero-emission electric vehicles will be on sale.
