Euro 7 the new pollutant emission standard

Although considerable advances in EU air quality have been made in recent 50 years, pollutant emissions still impact the quality of the air we all breathe, especially in urban areas. Currently, the Euro 6 emissions standard, or more precisely Euro 6d-ISC-FCM, regulates how many pollutants a vehicle may emit.The EU wants to address the issue of exhaust emissions comprehensively for the last time – that much is certain. It is to become the final emissions standard for internal combustion engines before electric cars gradually take over. The Commission has formulated ambitious goals, virtually guard rails for the legislative process: Euro 7 is intended to make cars as clean as possible over their entire lifetime and in all operating states – a challange?!

The key points of the proposal on the emissions standard are the following regulations:
– For the first time, the Euro 7 emissions standard sets equal limits for diesel and gasoline engines. The limit value for nitrogen oxides is 60 mg/km. For trucks and buses, the limits are to be reduced more sharply.
– New: One innovation is that there is a limit value for brake abrasion, which is why electric vehicles are also affected by the regulation.  In addition, a minimum service life for the traction battery of electric cars is required.

Entry into force of the new standard: probably 2025 (up to 2027 possible, based on brussels bureaucracy).
However, the exhaust emission standards are not about CO₂, but predominantly about nitrogen oxides (NOx), particle number (PN) and particulate matter (PM).
This draft must then be approved by the Parliament and the Council.

Framing Euro 7 is the EU Parliament’s decision on CO₂ fleet emissions: From January 1, 2035, no new vehicles emitting carbon dioxide in traffic will be allowed on the road.

Euro 7: Same limits for all
In concrete terms, there will no longer be any distinction between diesel and gasoline engines.

Euro 7: abolition of the conformity factor (CF)
Currently, passenger cars are allowed to emit 43% more NOx when measured in real road traffic (RDE for Real Driving Emissions) than in the test laboratory (corresponding to CF 1.43). This discount will be eliminated.

The new Euro 7 emissions standard: Ambitious – or not?
Critics complain that today’s cars with internal combustion engines would already be much better than the current Euro 6d limits and that the draft for Euro 7 would not be strict enough. As usual, however, this assumption is likely to apply mainly to high-priced vehicles; in the price-sensitive segment, as a rule, only as much cleaning technology is installed as costs allow and standards require and for comparison: in China there are now already. In fact, the explosive power of the proposals lies not in the actual limit values, but in the framework conditions of the tests, in the fine print, so to speak. Among other things, it states that the values must always be complied with, i.e. even under extreme driving conditions such as full acceleration, top speed, maximum load or immediately after a cold start.
Cars with internal combustion engines will increasingly lose market share in favor of battery-electric cars. Estimates suggest that around 25 percent of new registrations in 2025 will be electric cars. By 2030, the share should already be well over 50 percent due to CO₂ fleet limits. If it’s only up to the announcements made by battery cell producers, the EU could even be at 100 percent by 2030.

what about e-fuels?
Associations such as the Zentralverband Deutsches Kraftfahrzeuggewerbe (ZDK) and the Gesamtverband Autoteile-Handel (GVA) assume that neither individual mobility nor delivery and heavy-duty traffic can be realized without conventionally powered vehicles even beyond 2035. With synthetic fuels produced in a climate-neutral manner, these vehicles could be operated in an environmentally friendly manner.

Euro 7: Brake abrasion is limited
It is therefore all the more important that limits for brake abrasion (PM10) are introduced for the first time.

Euro 7: next
What the Euro 7 emissions standard will actually look like in detail remains to be seen from the agreement reached on the European Commission’s draft and the negotiations with the Parliament and Council.
The Commission itself sees the decision against the background of the current situation. The difficult economic situation and high raw material prices would already make for more expensive combustion engines. The automotive industry should be able to invest more in the development of electric cars instead of continuing to develop the internal combustion engine with new specifications. This could make for somewhat cleaner gasoline and diesel engines, but could also drive up prices further, the argument goes.

The further development of an internal combustion engine that is as environmentally friendly as possible is also unnecessary because of EU plans to no longer permit new registrations from 2035. It is still unclear whether the draft will actually be implemented in this way.

In any case, the air in the cities will become cleaner. That much is certain 😉

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