Illustration photo – Minister of Transport Martin Kupka.
Prague – The proposed Euro 7 emission standard in its current form is unacceptable for the Czech Republic. It would mean jeopardizing the production of cars and trucks and buses, reducing the availability of new cars and making them more expensive. The impact on reducing emissions is rather questionable. The Minister of Transport Martin Kupka (ODS) therefore wants to discuss changes to the standard with the European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton in Brussels on Friday. He stated this today at a press conference in the Chamber of Deputies.
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“Our position on the current form of the standard is unequivocally negative. We are aware of the threat to passenger car, truck and bus production as well as the significant threat to the availability of cars to the public. We will appeal for the necessary modification of the standard,” said Kupka. According to him, the majority of European manufacturers, as well as some member countries, are against the standard, he mentioned, for example, the German Minister of Transport.
Among other things, the proposed standard aims to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides and solid particles released into the air. Euro 7 is supposed to harmonize the limits for petrol and diesel cars, vehicles will have to comply with it for twice as long as the current standards, and in addition to exhausts, it will also apply to brakes and tires. In addition, the cars should have sensors that will allow emissions to be checked at any time.
According to Kupka, the standard should give individual manufacturers enough time to have available technologies at all, such as low-emission brakes or sensors monitoring the amount of emissions while driving.
According to car companies, new cars will be more expensive by tens of thousands of crowns. For example, smaller Škoda Auto models such as the Scala, Kamiq or Fabia, however, according to Škoda's director of external relations Michal Kadera, will reach a price level at which they will be unsellable to customers. While the Škoda model range now starts at the level of 300,000 crowns, according to him, in order to be manufacturable according to the new conditions, the price would increase to 450,000 to 500,000 crowns. “Customers will not have these cars,” he warned. According to him, this will result in the longer use of less ecological used cars and the aging of the vehicle fleet. He also drew attention to the considered validity from 2025, while automakers would need about four years to implement the requirements of the standard.
According to the Association of the Automotive Industry, the proposal does not actually provide time for development and adaptation of production, which will cause production interruptions in a number of plants. In addition, the required massive investments will only be usable for a relatively short period of time until 2035, when the EU has banned combustion engines completely, but will significantly limit the available resources for the development and production of completely emission-free vehicles. “It will have a negative impact on citizens, as it will lead to a fundamental reduction in the supply of available smaller vehicles and an increase in the cost of personal road transport, thus mobility in general,” said Zdeněk Petzl, executive director of the association. According to him, the benefit to the environment is negligible, because in the absence of systemic support for the renewal of the aging vehicle fleet, the share of emissions from the operation of vehicles meeting standards older than Euro 7/VII will, in the long term, significantly exceed emissions from vehicles newly entering the market. The benefit of the new emission standard will further reduce the rapidly growing share of completely emission-free vehicles.
The Commission estimates that, compared to the current standard, Euro 7 should ensure a reduction of nitrogen oxide emissions by 35 percent by 2035, and for solid particles then by 13 percent. For trucks and buses, 56 percent of nitrogen oxide emissions and 39 percent of solid particles are to be accounted for.
