Transport and Environment has revealed in a briefing that over 90 per cent of new Euro 6 diesel vehicles being sold today do not meet the EU emissions limits for roads. Yet these vehicles are still being exempt from low emission zones (LEZs) or even diesel bans in European cities.
T&E notes that the new cars being exempt are still breaching nitrogen oxide (NOx) limits by producing as much as 4 or 5 times, or even up to 10 times more with certain models. Such cars are actually emitting more NOx than Euro 4 and 5 cars that have been banned.
“One of the key weaknesses of the low emission zones and car restrictions in cities is the blanket exemption of mostly dirty Euro 6 diesels,” says clean vehicles manager at T&E, Julia Poliscanova.
“Unless carmakers properly fix these dirty diesels, cities are left with no other option but keep them out of city centres,” she continues and explains that in order to be “effective, the inclusion/exclusion criteria of these measures should be based on vehicles’ real-world emissions that are now widely available. More importantly, diesel bans should be accompanied by high-quality public transport and infrastructure for shared and zero emission vehicles.”
After to the dieselgate scandal there are currently around 40 million polluting diesel cars and vans left traversing Europe’s roads. T&T highlight that national vehicle approval authorities are reluctant to push carmakers to fix these vehicles. However, if these issues are not fixed, cities will be forced to implement drastic measures to restrict polluting in order to protect public health.
