The onslaught against diesel, which started with older and more polluting cars, could start to engulf much newer Euro 6 compliant cars registered before September 2018, which can now be banned from Madrid, Paris and Brussels. This is after European courts overturned a relaxation of EU emissions limits, Autocar reports.
According to the report, the three city authorities have now been given the power to stop all diesel vehicles that don’t comply to the latest Euro 6d TEMP rules from entering. The ruling by the European Court of Justice means vehicles that enter the cities have to emit less than 80 mg/km of nitrogen oxides (NOx).
This 80 mg/km NOx limit was the originally set figure for the Euro 6 emissions standard, launched in 2007. But ahead of the WLTP and Real Driving Emissions (RDE) testing procedures introduction in 2017, the European Union relaxed the target so that vehicles could emit 168 mg/km of NOx, which was more than double the original limit.
The three capital cities then lodged complaints that the relaxed limits allowed “excessively high” local pollution, which the European court has now upheld, saying “the commission did not have the power to amend the Euro 6 emissions limits for the new Real Driving Emissions tests.” The report adds that it now looks likely that Madrid, Brussels and Paris will now push forward a previously proposed ban.
However, if you’ve been following the news, France is currently gripped by protests by the gilets jaunes a.k.a. yellow vests, who have been angered by a planned rise in duties on diesel fuel. It started as that, but the discontent has now spread to other economic issues, forcing French president Emmanuel Macron to scrap the tax rise and promise more money for minimum wage earners and pensioners.
The gilets jaunes have gathered in Paris and other large cities for a fifth consecutive Saturday of demonstrations this weekend, seriously affecting businesses and the French economy. Amid anger at rising costs and accusations that the president is out-of-touch with normal folk, surely the Élysée palace would not, in the near future, add fire to the fuel?
It will take lots of political will and courage, but if cities and European countries push through with the banning of diesel cars that are so new, it would surely accelerate the death of diesel. Already, some carmakers have stopped the sales and/or development of diesel engines, among them Porsche, Nissan, Volvo and Peugeot. Who would have predicted this a few years back?
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