European Council and Parliament strike provisional Euro 7 deal
20 December 2023
The European Council and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement on the Euro 7 regulation for the type-approval of motor vehicles and engines, and of the systems, components and separate technical units intended for such vehicles, with respect to their emissions and battery durability.
The new regulation sets rules for vehicle emissions and aims to lower air pollutant emissions from road transport further. For the first time, the Euro emissions regulation covers cars, vans, and heavy-duty vehicles in one single legal act.
The provisional agreement will retain the Euro 6 emissions limits for cars and vans but reduce the limits for buses and trucks. It also introduces limits for particles emitted by brakes (in electric vehicles in particular) and lifetime requirements.
With Euro 7 we aim to reduce road vehicle emissions, not only from exhaust, but also from brakes or tires. At the same time, we aim to help our industry make the big leap to near-zero emissions vehicles by 2035.
—Jordi Hereu i Boher, Spanish minister for industry and tourism
The Euro 7 regulation establishes rules for the exhaust gas emissions of road vehicles, but also for other types of emissions such as tire abrasion and brake particle emissions. It also sets limits for battery durability.
The new legislation replaces the previously separate emissions rules for cars and vans (Euro 6) and lorries and buses (Euro VI). Exhaust emission limits The provisional agreement reached today maintains the existing Euro 6 exhaust emission limits for cars and vans. However, the agreement limits the emission of solid particles with a diameter starting from 10 nm (PN10), instead of 23 nm as in Euro 6. This improvement reflects the latest developments in the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).
In the case of heavy-duty buses and trucks, the deal establishes more stringent limits for various pollutants, including for pollutants that were not regulated in Euro VI, such as nitrous oxide (N2O).
Limits for braking emissions. The compromise text agreed by the co-legislators includes, for cars and vans, a specific limit of 3 mg/km in the standard driving cycle for pure electric vehicles and 7 mg/km for all the rest of powertrains. Specific limits for heavy vans are included in the agreement—5 mg/km for pure electric vehicles and 11 mg/km for other powertrains.
Lifetime requirements. The co-legislators introduced stricter lifetime requirements for all vehicles in terms of both mileage and lifetimes; that now goes up to 200,000 km or 10 years for cars and vans.
Application dates. The deal foresees different dates of application after the regulation enters into force:
30 months for new types of cars and vans, and 42 months for new vehicles
48 months for new types of buses, trucks and trailers, and 60 months for new vehicles
30 months for new systems, components, or separate technical units to be fitted in cars and vans, and 48 months for those to be fitted in buses, trucks, and trailers.
Background. The Euro 7 regulation, which is part of the Commission’s 2020 Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy and the 2021 Zero-Pollution Action Plan, was presented by the Commission on 10 November 2022.The Council adopted its position or ‘general approach’ on 25 September 2023.
On 19 April 2023 the European Parliament and the Council adopted Regulation (EU) 2023/851 to strengthen the CO2 emission performance standards for new passenger cars and new light commercial vehicles that sets a 100% reduction target for both cars and vans from 2035 onwards.
This means that while new combustion cars and vans will be banned in the internal market, they will still be available until 2035. Other internal combustion vehicles (trucks, buses, and other heavy-duty vehicles) will continue to be produced after that date.
The Euro 7 rules will cover the emissions of cars and vans until that date, while other rules contained in the regulation (concerning brakes, tires, and battery life, for example) will continue to apply to new cleaner cars and vans after 2035.
Next steps. The provisional agreement reached with the European Parliament now needs to be endorsed and formally adopted by both institutions.
Reactions. The Association for Emissions Control by Catalyst said that while it was positive that Euro 7 will control ultrafine combustion particles (PN10), the overall Euro 7 ambition with regards to exhaust emissions was disappointing.
Euro 7 consequently falls short as a supporting tool for better air quality in European cities. Millions of vehicles with internal combustion engines will be sold in the next decades and these will not contribute to air quality improvements. Emission control technologies are available to further reduce emissions and there will be no incentives to bring these to the market.
—AECC
European environmental NGO Transport & Environment was harsher in its assessment:
EU lawmakers have agreed to leave limits on toxic NOx and the mass of particles emitted from new cars untouched. Transport & Environment (T&E) called on the European Parliament to reject the deal which would allow carmakers to greenwash new vehicles as ‘Euro 7’ despite being virtually no cleaner than under the ‘Euro 6’ standard agreed in 2014.
The new Euro 7 standard would keep the existing Euro 6 NOx limits – 60 milligrams per km for petrol cars and 80 mg/km for diesel cars – under the agreement reached between EU governments and MEPs. Today’s setback saw lawmakers ditch the 60 mg/km limit for diesel cars proposed by the European Commission.
T&E is warning that citizens’ health will suffer for decades as a result of the watering down of the rules for emissions from cars, vans, buses and trucks.
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