Draft regulations seen by the paper suggest that Euro 7 will only bring diesel emissions in line with those for petrol cars, while stepping back from tightening rules for petrol engines.
The new standards, set to come in by 2025, would therefore continue to allow highly-polluting petrol cars that meet the current Euro 6 standards to be sold throughout the 2020s.
This could see nearly 100m new highly-polluting cars on Europe’s roads by the end of the decade.
The European Commission’s own expert group, Clove, called for tighter regulations that would limit the number of premature deaths caused by road transport emissions, estimated at 70,000 in 2018.
However, the Commission has faced intense lobbying from the car industry.
A spokesperson for the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association told The Guardian: “The industry is calling for an approach that is not only effective in terms of results, but that is cost-beneficial, while also addressing the huge challenges of meeting future CO2 targets. Vehicle manufacturers are going full-course ahead with the goal of carbon neutrality – it would be counter-productive to take away investments from this.”
The Euro 7 regulation is due to be published on 9 November this year. The European Commission emphasise that the regulation is still subject to change.
