Pressure mounts for Euro 6 delay
By: Alan Bunting, Monday, July 27, 2009, AutomotiveWorld.com
ACEA, the European vehicle manufacturers’ association, is understood to be preparing a document on behalf of the EU’s commercial vehicle builders, calling on Brussels authorities to delay the introduction date for Euro 6 truck and bus emissions legislation. They say the effects of the current recession are hampering investment in the new technology needed to update engines and aftertreatment systems to the new standard. It is also claimed that the substantial price increases necessary to cover those refinements will deter buyers who could themselves still be struggling to remain profitable.
Paolo Monferino, CEO of the Fiat Group's Iveco truck division, has said the planned deadline of January 2014 for Euro 6 implementation for new type approvals and January 2015 for all new registrations should be put back by two years. Monferino, speaking at the recent launch of the latest Iveco EcoDaily range of vans and light trucks, asserted that the cost and effort involved in cutting NOx and particulate emissions from today’s Euro 4 and 5 levels to the tougher Euro 6 standard was not the most effective means of reducing real-life exhaust emissions. He pointed out that successive lowering of pollutant limits over the last 15 years or so had, on each occasion, roughly halved harmful tailpipe emissions.
In absolute terms it has become a law of diminishing returns, which means the environmental benefits of the step-down to Euro 6 limits are, in Monferino’s words, "only marginal." A more effective way to reduce emissions would be for the EU to force the removal from the road of the tens of thousands of highly polluting Euro 1 and older trucks which are still in everyday service.
Despite manufacturers’ pleas, the complex and intricate way that EU legislation is framed and enacted makes it highly unlikely – short of being completely redrafted – that the Euro 6 timetable could be put back. The only foreseeable concessions would centre on a so-called derogation procedure of the kind invoked on the occasion of the last two or three step-downs in permitted emission levels. Those would allow Euro 5-compliant vehicles built after a specified date to continue being sold and registered up until a further date beyond the nominal Euro 6 deadline.
The opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Automotive World Ltd.
Published on Monday, July 27, 2009
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