Global Insight Perspective | |
Significance | The EU Parliament has voted in favour of introducing stringent Euro-V emission standards from 2009 and aims to force car manufacturers to cut particles emissions by making the fitment of DPF mandatory from 2009. |
Implications | Euro-V measures are not as stringent as they look overall and will particularly affect diesel cars. Industry groups are concerned that these measures will have detrimental effects on the market for diesel cars, which are currently the most efficient for reducing both fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, but also regrets that the new emission standards have not been based on proper and transparent impact assessments. |
Outlook | The regulation is a compromise reached between the European Parliament and EU governments, but also with European manufacturers. By voting in favour of revising the deadline for the introduction of Euro-V, the EU parliament environment committee has bowed to the pressure from car manufacturers, which already wielded their influence by securing lower than expected limits on PM emissions for diesel vehicles. Under the compromise deal, Euro-V standards would start to apply a year later than originally proposed by the EC, and full compliance will only become compulsory as of January 2011 and controversial measures on SUV will be maintained until 2012. |
Compromised or Counter-Productive Regulation ?
The European Union (EU) Parliament has voted in favour of introducing Euro-V emission standards from 1 September 2009 but the new proposal allows a two-year transition period before the new standards are fully implemented. Under the new standards, new cars and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) sold in the EU are to cut emissions of particles by 80%. Diesel vehicles are particularly affected by the new regulations as new diesel cars will be required to be equipped with a diesel particulate filter (DPF) by 2009, with all cars to have one from January 2011. Emission limits for nitrogen oxides (NOx) from new models of diesel cars will be reduced to 180mg/km from September 2009, and further down to 80mg/km five years later, when Euro-VI standards are scheduled to come into effect. Under the current Euro-IV standards, which were introduced in January 2005, NOx emissions from diesel cars should not exceed 250mg/km. The Parliament vote still needs to be confirmed by the EU member states to be applicable. Euro-type emission standards are a set of rules aimed at further restricting emissions from both petrol (gasoline) and diesel cars of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC), NOx and particulate matters (PM), which are considered harmful to human health.
Euro-V and VI Measures in Summary |
Introduction of Euro-V: 1 Sept 2009 for new models certified, 16 months later (1 Jan 2011) for all new cars sold, and also one year and four months later for vans (1 Jan 2011/12) |
Source: European Federation for Transport and Environment |
The original draft, presented by the European Commission (EC) in December 2005 under the Clean Air for Europe (CAFE) programme, suggested enforcing the new rules for private cars as early as mid-2008. However, the EU Parliament Environment Committee has voted in favour of amending the draft regulation presented by the EC, meaning that the new Euro V standard will apply from 1 September 2009 for private cars while special light vehicles and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) will have until 1 September 2010 to comply. A transition period extending until January 2011 for private cars and 2012 for LCVs is also included in the new rules, meaning that full compliance will only become compulsory as of January 2011. The amendments also comprise an upward revision of emissions limits for HC and NOx produced from vehicle exhausts which can contribute to smog formation and are harmful to human health. In addition, members of the EU parliament also proposed that deadlines be set for the next generation of emission standards (Euro-VI), suggesting 1 September 2014 for private cars and 1 September 2015 for LCVs.
Outlook and Implications
The regulation is a compromise reached between the European Parliament and EU governments, but also with European manufacturers. The fact that the draft proposal will be ratified when Germany holds the EU presidency could have added pressure on regulators to make compromises or see their regulations simply rejected. Any effort to impose too radical rules on the auto industry is always likely to meet with opposition from Western European governments, particularly the German administration, which is traditionally very supportive of its domestic manufacturers.
A report produced by the European Federation for Transport and Environment has found that around three-quarters of automakers are failing to meet the European Automobile Manufacturers Association's (ACEA) voluntary targets for carbon dioxide (CO2) emission reductions to an average of 140 grams per kilometre (g/km) per car by 2008. According to the report German and Japanese carmakers are the most at fault when it comes to improving fuel efficiency to meet present European targets to cut CO2 emissions. In addition, German carmakers are still lagging behind French and Italian competitors in the area of DPF fitment.
By voting in favour of revising the deadline for the introduction of Euro-V, the EU parliament environment committee has bowed to pressure from car manufacturers, which already wielded their influence by securing lower than expected limits on PM emissions for diesel vehicles. Under the compromise deal, Euro-V standards would start to apply a year later than originally proposed by the EC, and full compliance will only become compulsory as of January 2011. In addition, the deal failed to close a loophole by allowing heavily polluting sports-utility vehicles (SUVs) to be included in the LCV category and therefore benefit from a one-year delay in complying with the new emission rules. Under the EC's proposal, SUVs over 2.5 tonnes would have been subject to the same limits as all other cars for the first time. However, the EU parliament agreed to maintain the exemption for SUVs and instead abolish it only as Euro-VI standards are introduced, meaning that SUVs will not be obliged to comply with the new standards until 2012.
Although regulating vehicle emissions is necessary, the consensual proposal backed by the European Parliament may have counter-productive effects. By maintaining a loophole on SUV the EU proposal is actually failing to address one of the most important problems for urban circulation, safety and air quality, but take a contrasting direction to many EU member states that are beginning to introduce extra taxes to penalise the most polluting vehicles. As Jos Dings, director of the European Federation for Transport and Environment commented, "The European Parliament has thrown away the opportunity to fix many of Europe's severe urban air quality problems using technologies that are already available. Instead, Europeans will have to wait until 2015 to buy a diesel car as clean as those already on sale in America."
On the other hand, the ACEA criticised the stringent limit values for NOx and particulate matter set in the Euro-V proposal as extremely challenging for the European automotive industry to comply with. A spokesperson for the ACEA said "the European car industry will do its utmost to meet the extremely ambitious targets within the set time frame but what concerns us, is that the proposed limit values will not only be extremely difficult to meet, but will have a significant counter-productive effect on reducing CO2 emissions from passenger cars. They also pose a serious risk for the market of small diesel cars." European carmakers have often called on the EU authorities to create tax incentives to encourage consumers to buy less-polluting cars rather than punish the industry. Car manufacturers also explained that more stringent safety regulations are eroding their efforts to cut fuel consumption, as the weight of new vehicles increases with the addition of new safety features. Also fitting a DPF tends to make diesel engines less efficient in terms of CO2 emission. Finally the real challenge to cut all sorts of emissions and improve air quality radically remains the renewal of the vehicle parc.
So in effect, the new emission standards are, according to the ACEA, threatening to halt a natural market transition toward new small diesel vehicles, which are currently the most fuel efficient and less polluting in CO2 terms, because of the likely price increase resulting from the mandatory fitment of DPF, and in return could lead consumers to hold on to their vehicles for longer. On the other hand, they will allow SUVs and other large polluting vehicles to continue to clog roads and release large amounts of noxious gases in the atmosphere unchallenged. In the end, the EU may have to ironically turn to the United States to get advice on how to combat CO2 emissions while pushing for clean diesels, even though both subjects are still nascent topics over there.
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