Europe approves Spain’s emissions reducing proposal

The European Council, meeting under the Spanish presidency, has adopted its position (“general orientation”) on the proposal for a Regulation for the approval of motor vehicles and engines, and of systems, components and independent technical units intended for such vehicles, with regarding its emissions and the durability of the batteries, better known as Euro 7.

The Council’s position strikes an appropriate balance between strict vehicle emissions requirements and additional efforts for the industry, at a time when European car manufacturers are in the midst of their transformation towards the production of zero-emission cars.

The general approach maintains existing emissions limits and test conditions for light vehicles, while reducing emissions limits for heavy vehicles. The entry into force is delayed to 2027 for light vehicles and 2029 for heavy vehicles.

For the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Héctor Gómez, “the Spanish presidency has been sensitive to the different demands and requests of the countries and we believe that, with this proposal, we achieved broad support.” He has also stressed that “a balance is achieved in the investment costs of the manufacturing brands and we improve the environmental benefits derived from the regulation.”

The minister stressed that “Europe has a world record in the production of cars with low emissions and high quality. We want to continue pursuing the objective of improving air quality. Our position is to continue the path of leading the mobility of the future and adopting levels of realistic emissions for the vehicles of the next decade while helping our industry make the final leap towards clean cars in 2035.

Additionally, the position also contains a special provision on city buses to ensure consistency with the recently proposed goal of zero CO2 emissions by 2030 for these vehicles.

As truly novel aspects of the Council’s general orientation, it is worth highlighting:

Limits for non-exhaust emissions, such as brake particulate emissions and tyre abrasion rate.

Minimum performance requirements for battery durability in electric cars and imposes stricter requirements on vehicle life.

Use of advanced technologies and emissions monitoring tools.

Spain managed to avoid any embarrassment during the proposal presentation, after it was revealed how few towns and cities have adopted the mandatory low emissions zones which should have entered into force at the beginning of this year.

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