(AOF) – The European Parliament announced yesterday that it had adopted its negotiating position on the overhaul of Union rules relating to type approval and market surveillance of motor vehicles (Euro 7). The new regulation will change the current limits for tailpipe emissions and introduce new measures to reduce tire and brake emissions and to increase battery durability. However, Parliament’s version is behind the European Commission’s initial proposals.
The Association of European Automobile Manufacturers (Acea) welcomes a “more realistic” approach to Euro 7: it emphasizes, however, that Euro 7 “remains costly” even though it comes “at a very critical moment in the transformation of the sector.
“Given that the methods for testing emissions other than exhaust gases are completely new and have not yet been tested, the technical feasibility of these new targets must be guaranteed” underlines Acea, which calls on policy makers to “ensure that realism prevails” during the trilogue negotiations (with the Commission and the Council of Ministers), and not to let a disproportionate Euro 7 derail the progress already made by manufacturers.
“With the current direction of the regulations, the anticipated cost of its implementation can no longer be considered as a problem,” said Benjamin Krieger, secretary general of Clepa, the European association of automotive equipment manufacturers. He says he is “favorable to an agreement” within the framework of the trilogue which is “oriented towards Parliament’s position on thresholds and testing conditions.” He considers it “very important to at least streamline the implementation timetable with the revision of the Air Quality Directive, which is being negotiated in parallel.”