The European Commission may have been too optimistic in its estimates when calculating the additional costs for vehicles imposed by the switch to Euro 7 regulations.
According a study commissioned by the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers (ACEA) and carried out by Frontier Economics, the direct cost per vehicle for cars and vans with internal combustion engines to enable them to meet the Euro 7 standard would be €1,862 for petrol and €2,629 for diesel, which represents respectively 10 and 5 times more than the official estimates of the European Commission. In addition, that for trucks and buses with diesel engines amounts to an amount of €11,707 per vehicle, ie 4 times more than the figure initially suggested.
The study relates to the investments necessary for the production of the vehicles, which means that it will be passed on directly to the price that the customer will have to pay, unless the manufacturers agree to reduce their margins. Additionally, industry experts estimate that Euro 7 engines could lead to an increase in fuel consumption of around 3.5%.
Read also
France and seven other European countries oppose the Euro 7 standard
Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schäfer already warned last year that the cost needed for a car to meet tougher Euro 7 regulations could reach €5,000 per vehicle, jeopardizing the city car category thermals along the way. Klaus Zellmer, his colleague from Skoda, followed suit by recently stating that a car currently selling for €15,000 should be offered between €18,000 and €20,000 once in the Euro 7 era. Finally , a few days ago, Olivier Zipse, head of BMW, simply said that it could not work.
The ACEA stresses that the European Union already currently has “the most comprehensive and stringent standards in the world in terms of pollutant emissions” and that with Euro 6 currently in force, “exhaust emissions are already at a barely measurable level”. The association therefore believes that Euro 7 is “not the right way” to reduce emissions further, because it will have an “extremely low environmental impact for an extremely high cost”, and that we should be content with focus on the transition to electric while replacing older vehicles with Euro 6 models.
As a reminder, the Euro 7 regulations are scheduled to come into force for all new cars, vans, trucks and buses sold in Europe from July 2025. They require NOx and particulate emissions lower by 35% and 13% respectively. compared to Euro 6 levels, as well as the addition of electrically heated catalysts and an on-board diagnostics system that will continuously monitor emissions. And it will not spare electric cars either.
Source : CarScoops
