The new EU emissions rules have overcome an important hurdle: negotiators from the European Parliament and the EU states agreed on the new Euro 7 pollutant standard, as both sides announced. This means that limits for brake and tire wear will also be introduced for the first time.
The EU states and the European Parliament still have to formally approve the agreement. According to Parliament, the rules will apply to cars and vans 30 months after they come into force and to buses and trucks 48 months after this date.
The new rules are intended to regulate pollutant emissions from vehicles such as cars, vans and trucks more strictly than before. Such pollutants include, for example, nitrogen oxides. However, the rules had been significantly weakened
– a success for VW, BMW and Mercedes.
What is new is that substances harmful to health such as fine dust, which can be caused by tire wear or braking, will also be regulated in the future. This means that electric cars and hydrogen vehicles are also affected by the rules. Until now, exhaust gases have been the focus of the Euro standards.
Euro 6 previously regulated nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), particles, hydrocarbons and methane as well as ammonia for trucks and buses.
According to studies by the European Environment Agency and the so-called Joint Research Center, road traffic was responsible for 39 percent of harmful NOx emissions (nitrogen oxides) in 2018. In cities the proportion was as high as 47 percent. Road traffic also accounts for 11 percent of total fine dust emissions with a particle size of less than 10 micrometers.