‘Euro 7 emission standard not stricter than Euro 6’

Under the headline ‘Euro 7 not the end of the combustion engine after all’, we wrote last year that the Euro 7 standards would not be as strict as originally thought. The first Euro 7 plans that became public still contained emission standards, which would almost cause the combustion engine to become extinct, but later it became clear that the standards would not become so strict.

Ultimately, the European Commission seems to be going a big step further in this regard. Political news platform Politico saw the preliminary rules for the Euro 7 standard, which will be officially presented on November 9. This would state that the Euro 7 standards will remain the same as the current Euro 6 standards. Reasons for this are the circumstances the car industry is currently facing and the electrification ambition that has already been set. After all, the EU wants only EVs to be sold in Europe from 2035. In addition, the European administrators are pleased with the ambitions of some car manufacturers to abandon combustion engines completely earlier – the result of a strong lobby.

No development costs for ICE and EV

The Commission is also aware of the current situation of car manufacturers. They have to do with increased material and energy prices, which lead to higher production costs and therefore prices of cars. At the same time, inflation is at an all-time high, so it is not a time when consumers are quick to buy cars. On top of that, the industry already has a lot of costs in developing EVs. That is why the EU is now moving to minimize the costs of fuel engine development by leaving its emissions standards unchanged.

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares will be pleased with the preliminary news. It remains to be seen how much the Euro 7 standard actually means that little investment needs to be made in fuel engines. We’ll know more on November 9, when the new standards become official.