Car makers have a tough fight on their hands over proposed clean air legislation across Europe.
The French Government has confirmed it will exclude diesels from new legislation designed to allow vehicles into urban area so individual authorities will be able to penalise their owners for using them instead of low carbon or petrol models.
This is seen as a test of the clean air programme in Europe and other countries are likely to follow the lead of France, particularly in highly polluted cities and towns.
In the UK, applications for financial assistance to bring in clean air policies in a number of cities have been made and this could mean sophisticated number plate recognition cameras installed to charge diesel vehicle owners and drivers, much as in London’s inner zone.
European automakers are seeking a five-year delay on tougher CO2 emissions targets for new cars sold in the EU.
The automakers’ lobby group, ACEA, has asked the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, to postpone a 2025 target that is currently being worked on by officials.
ACEA is arguing that the car industry needs until 2030 – or about two full model cycles – to meet a new target.
Automakers selling cars in Europe already have a target to reduce average CO2 emissions to 95 grams per km by 2021 from about 130g/km now. The Commission has committed itself to “assessing” a new, tougher target of 68g/km to 78g/km in 2025.
ACEA says it “may not be possible” for automakers to meet the EU’s goal of cutting CO2 emissions a further 30 percent by 2030 from 2005 levels, according to position paper drawn up by the lobby group.
Sales of diesel cars in France face a new threat after the government decided to exclude diesel engines from the cleanest classification of vehicle pollution.
The French government said that Euro 6 standard diesels will not be included in the new Category 1 color coding scheme that classifies vehicles according to how much they pollute. French cities may now use this ranking system to decide whether they want to ban diesel powered vehicles from urban areas.
