The original plans for the new Euro 7 emission standard, which should come into force in 2025, de facto marked the end of non-electrified cars at European car showrooms. Emission limits would be extremely strict, and what’s more, at some points the standard for conventional cars would be technically unattainable.
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She asked, among other things, for the car to have the same emissions in any driving situation – both when driving slowly on a flat surface and when towing a loaded trailer uphill. This is not technically possible with an internal combustion engine.
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However, after a series of negotiations, Hildegarda Müller, who said today that the German VDA (Verband der Automobilindustrie, Association of the Automotive Industry) stated that she had reduced the unrealistic demands, showed that plans for the new Euro 7 standard showed that the European Commission had recognized technically possible limits and abandoned unattainable goals. This is good news for Europeans and for the environment. ”
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If the EU proposal in its original version became a binding standard, instead of the expected improvement in emissions, according to some voices, there was a risk that the latest and cleanest generations of cars would not enter the market. Because many people cannot afford a new electric car, instead of replacing their older car with a new conventional one, they would keep the older one, meeting long-gone emission standards.
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Emissions are measured according to current standards in real operation. It is called RDE – Real Driving Emissions.
Photo: Škoda
“The original EU proposal would take us back years in terms of climate protection,” Müller continues. Even new proposals are on the verge of technologically achievable. The success is that they are not unattainable, but still, according to Müller, “we must be careful not to exclude Euro 7 from internal combustion engines.”
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However, according to a VDA press release, the European Commission has confirmed that nothing like this is its goal – at least for now. State-of-the-art Euro 6d-ISC-FCM compliant cars already achieve significantly lower emissions than the standard allows under a number of conditions, and Euro 7 should be the next stage of development, not a utopia, according to the organization.
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“Now we also need to support synthetic fuels from renewable energy sources, because the problem for the climate is not the engine, but its fuel,” adds Müller, referring to Porsche’s efforts. She is working hard to research fuel produced from atmospheric CO2 using “green” energy.
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It is these fuels that may decide in the future whether the internal combustion engines of new cars will definitively bury the standards, or whether the EU will change its mindset and start focusing on fuel instead of cars. For example, a tax advantage is offered for synthetic fuels and biofuels produced from waste, while at the same time disadvantaging fossil fuels.
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