Italian Transport Minister, the far right matthew salvini, wants to block the Euro 7 emissions standard, which should come into force in mid-2025 if it remains in its current form. According to the political leader, the new regulations are incorrect and are not even useful from an environmental point of view.
Salvini affirms that Italy has enough support in the European Union to paralyze the norm: France, the Czech Republic, Romania, Portugal, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Poland and Hungary. “Now we are a blocking minority, we want to become a majority”explained during a dealer conference in Verona.
These statements are in line with the position of the European industry, which has spent months defending the need to postpone, modify or even abolish Euro 7, since it will force manufacturers to invest in technology (internal combustion engines) that the European Union wants to ban from 2035. Carlos Tavares, CEO of StellantisHe pointed out at the time that, if he went ahead, he would force the groups to withdraw part of their investments in electrification.
I don’t think Europe needs [la normativa] Euro 7. It’s going to divert some of our research and development power to something we don’t need, while our Chinese competitors only enter the market with battery electric cars. Why are we using our resources for a technology we want to ban? It’s not common sense.”. It is interesting to remember that Stellantis’ main shareholder is Exor, a trading company controlled by the powerful Italian Agnelli family..
The European industry, against Euro 7
He ACEA (European Association of Automobile Manufacturers) He is of the same opinion as Tavares, since he considers that the provisional calendar to implement the new regulation is unrealistic. «Euro 7 represents an important reinforcement with respect to the updated criteria […] in 2020 with the Euro 6d standard. It is not a simple extension of the Euro 6 standard launched in 2014”.
According to the European lobby, the benefits of tightening the NOx emission limits would be minimal compared to the investments required to comply with them. “The most stringent Euro 7 scenarios would reduce NOx emissions from road transport by less than 4% extra compared to Euro 6d levels«.
Members of the association such as Renault point out that Euro 7 could be a brake on the development of electric mobility in the old continent. In accordance with gilles le borgnehead of engineering of the diamond firm, the costs derived from its application could amount to more than 1,000 million euros.
Source | Automotive News Europe
