Euro7G: Hybrid cars out in low emission zones
From 2025, the new EU Euro7 emissions standard is to come into force and put vehicle emissions of all kinds under greater control - including those from hybrid cars. In this context, location monitoring technology, or geofencing, is to automatically switch off the combustion engine in zero-emission zones and switch to purely electric.
Hybrid vehicles are lower-emission on the road than pure internal combustion vehicles, but still leave the driver the choice of still using diesel and petrol engines if desired. Within the framework of the new proposal for the upcoming emission standard, however, the European Union does not want such an option to exist any more - and is laying down special rules for hybrid cars.
Euro7 provides for a separate category for these cars - the so-called Euro7G, which applies exclusively to vehicles with both internal combustion engines and electric motors. Among other things, the principle of geofencing is to be used - namely a technology that regulates the relationship between a mobile position and a predetermined location. Based on this location monitoring technology, the system is supposed to automatically recognise whether the hybrid vehicle is allowed to drive in a certain area with a petrol engine or not. To this end, cities and regions could therefore designate special areas as zero-emission zones where only purely electric vehicles are allowed to drive.
If a hybrid car then drives into such a zone, the geofencing software will automatically switch off the combustion engine and let the car drive electrically. Only when leaving the zero-emission zone would the driver be able to switch back to the combustion engine. A technology that would not only consistently reduce hidden emissions. The problem that owners of hybrid cars only buy them for tax reasons and then only drive them with petrol or diesel engines should also be eliminated.
The plan, although promising in theory, leaves some questions unanswered. For example, what happens if at the moment of automatic switching the charge level of the hybrid vehicle is too low to use the fully electric mode? Or of even greater importance, to what extent will it be possible to make the geofencing technology available to all hybrid vehicles, for example - and to the cities with the required zones? Will the technology only be tested in existing low-emission zones and zero-emission zones for the time being? Or in places where the pollution levels are above the limits?
It is likely that all hybrids registered after the new emissions standard comes into force in July 2025 will have to be equipped with a corresponding system. And thus ensure that they will only come onto the market if they comply with Euro7. Whether this will be possible at all for all car manufacturers is not yet clear. Until the Euro7 standard comes into force, these questions will certainly be answered more precisely. What is clear, however, is that green technologies of the future - if used in the right way and under the right circumstances - can make a difference in the fight against emissions and climate change and will revolutionise the environmental zones in Europe once again.