All too often, according to police reports, catalytic converters are stolen from petrol and diesel cars because of the rising price of the metals they contain. A problem for the unfortunate car owner, but also for the environment. For the pollution potential of cars without catalytic converters can be extreme.
The theft of car components has become a mass problem in Western Europe over the last few years. The thieves seem to be mainly interested in one particular car component, the catalytic converter. While only a few exhaust gas purifiers were actually stolen in 2019, several thousand catalytic converters had been stolen in the last three years. Exact figures are not available because owners do not always report the theft to the police. In 2022, however, a "four-digit number" of catalytic converter thefts were registered in NRW alone - explains the State Criminal Police Office. And this year, too, hundreds of catalytic converters have already been stolen from circulation.
Catalytic converters are particularly popular as loot, mainly because of the high-value metals such as platinum, palladium and rhodium found in the component. The price of precious metals has been rising sharply for years and a stolen catalytic converter can currently fetch between 500 and 1000 euros. To get hold of this part more easily, thieves prefer old cars - as the catalytic converter is easy to steal without much effort. To get at the catalytic converter, the thieves only need to jack up the car - if at all - and then cut through the exhaust pipe in front of and behind the catalytic converter, for example with an electric saw or an exhaust cutter. Which only takes skilled thieves two to three minutes.
A theft that harms not only the vehicles involved but also the environment. While it is true that a car without a catalytic converter is not allowed to continue on the road, it is enough that the engine is only operated for a few minutes under the condition until harmful exhaust gases are released into the air. The catalytic converter is in fact an important component of the exhaust gas purification system of petrol and diesel engines. It ensures that combustion emissions are converted into less harmful gases. So if a vehicle were to drive freely without a catalytic converter, it would release many times more pollutants than the same vehicle - diesel or petrol - would under normal conditions.
The negative consequences for air pollution should therefore not be underestimated - as well as for the effectiveness of areas such as environmental zones, where emissions are supposed to be kept strictly under control. How can the authorities put an end to this series of thefts and protect air quality? What impact will the phasing out of the internal combustion engine and the decarbonisation of transport have on this, partly because of the expected increase in vehicles without catalytic converters such as electric cars? Will e-car batteries then become popular stolen goods? Throughout Germany, the state criminal investigation offices will monitor the situation.