You’d think one huge legislative burden would be enough, but now the European car industry is facing another.
The highly controversial Euro 7 emissions standards, which until this week had been expected to be delayed for so long they would likely never be introduced, will be coming after all, and within just two and a half years.
The demands are onerous and wide-reaching, including further reducing NOx and particulate emissions and also cutting emissions from brakes and tyres. Development cycles are typically around four years for new technology in the industry, yet these highly complex standards must now be met in almost half of that.
These emissions standards are on top of the latest Euro 6 regulations, which have already been through multiple iterations since they were first introduced in 2014, to create combustion cars that are as clean at the tailpipe as they’ve ever been, and perhaps ever can be.
Indeed, just last month, Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares declared that the Euro 7 proposals went beyond the limits of physics, and trying to engineer the solutions to meet them would place a dangerous strain on reliability and durability of cars, and would thus be impossible to implement.
Yet here they are, and we haven’t even got to the pointlessness of them. Remember, these same legislators have already decreed that all new cars sold in the EU must be zero-emission (ie electric) from 2035, which is putting an unprecedented burden on the finances of car makers in having to finance the development of this generational change. Their resources aren’t finite.
The industry has unsurprisingly reacted with dismay and fury. “We should not be diverting resources to yesterday’s technology and invest in zero-emission instead,” said Ford of Europe’s Martin Sander.
Sander touches on the cost to manufacturers, but what of consumers? The European Commission declares that the “affordable” rules will add €304 to the cost of a car, which frankly seems both patronising (who can ever say what is affordable to one person, especially given the unprecedented squeeze on finances?) and also naive, given this is the cost of the technology, rather than how much it will cost to develop at breakneck speed.
The president of European auto industry lobby group ACEA, BMW CEO Oliver Zipse, agrees. “Unfortunately, the environmental benefit of the commission’s proposal is very limited, whereas it heavily increases the cost of vehicles.” Zipse also said they were “unrealistic, given the huge number of vehicle models and variants that need to be developed”.
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Yes they will soon be obsolete but that is no reason not to invest in making them as clean, and more important that that cleanliness should be a durable and monitored, as possible.
Cars sold with EU7 will be available until 2035 and will probably be on the road for at least 15 years after that (Euro average parc life is 15 years) So that puts us in 2050 before these cars are off the road.
So there are nearly 30 years worth of reasons why these investments should be made.
I agree and the additional engineering isnt considered excessive by everyone in the industry: see Emissions Analytics assessment on LinkedIn.
In addition, new elements concerning brake and tyre particles will be relevant for EV's.