Low emission zones: What if everyone had an e-car?

From 2025, a new emissions standard, known as Euro7, is set to come into force in the European Union, revolutionising the way authorities consider and control pollutant emissions from road vehicles. Namely, the emissions standard will put vehicle emissions of all kinds under greater scrutiny - including those from electric cars. Indeed, electric cars are not without responsibility when it comes to their impact on the environment. Although they do not naturally emit combustion-like engine exhaust, electric cars do produce polluting particulate and microplastic emissions through brake and tyre wear. It is precisely this that Euronorm 7 aims to address in order to prevent such non-exhaust emissions.  

This is a decision that the EU will continue with the forthcoming emissions standard, which has been much criticised. Not only because the new law requires a substantial - and expensive - adjustment on the part of the automotive and tyre industries, but also because it sheds light on an often ignored dark side of electromobility. Electric vehicles are generally described as emission-free. But talk of their pollution potential through tyre and brake particles makes it clear that this is not true in practice. And that is only when local polluting releases are taken into account, on the road. When in fact electric cars, like any other vehicle, have a carbon footprint in the production phase as well - for example in the manufacture of components, such as batteries, as well as the vehicle as a finished product ready for the car market. In addition, there are CO2 and other pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and sulphur oxides at the power plants in the form of electricity production, essential for charging the e-car batteries.  

While the Euro 7 emissions standard cannot target emissions in the production chain, it can target emissions in the power plant. However, other initiatives inside and outside the EU now want to rethink how clean electric cars actually are - starting with the erroneous and blanket attribution of zero emissions. How to realistically calculate the propulsion balance of an e-vehicle is still a matter of debate. However, countries like China - one of the most advanced markets in the field of transport electrification - already want to officially put an end to the widespread practice of calculating zero grams of CO2 for electric vehicles. Because this is only an "economic trick of the car industry", which ultimately does not correspond to reality. 

The Chinese government wants to continue to forego the EU model of banning internal combustion engines, but plans to be even stricter with the electric quota that car manufacturers have to meet when producing new electric cars. According to current information from the authorities, the country plans to subject electric cars to certain limits in the new efficiency regulations for passenger cars. From around 2025, the electricity consumption of electric vehicles is to be converted into a corresponding petrol or diesel equivalent. Thus, CO2 limits for electric vehicles will be introduced and it will be made clear already in the legislation that all related emissions have a weight in climate protection - explains the consulting firm JSC Automotive, which specialises in China. In addition, China wants to invest increasingly in fuel cell technologies, since hydrogen vehicles on the one hand need no or only a very small battery and on the other hand the People's Republic can produce gigantic quantities of hydrogen.   

It remains unclear exactly how the future rules from China would affect the car market. However, experts suspect that German manufacturers could be put at a competitive disadvantage. Especially since German e-cars - heavier and more electricity-intensive compared to Chinese ones - would have a larger fossil footprint. At the same time, the awareness that electric cars are not completely emission-free is also gaining ground in the European Union - paving the way for a new trend in low emission zones. In the Netherlands, for example, the city of Amsterdam is already using the term "local emission-free" for its future low emission zone. 

What does this new positioning towards electric mobility mean for the broad environmental zone system in Europe? Subject to the success of Euro7 and thus the gradual approach to effective zero emissions on the road, the question must of course be asked whether the introduction and tightening of low-emission zones still makes sense. However, since the conversion of the vehicle population in active traffic to Euro7-compliant vehicles may take years or even decades, low emission zones should continue to fulfil their watchdog function and ensure that only standard-compliant vehicles will drive in the low emission zone areas. At the same time, low emission zones, and especially the even stricter regulations of zero emission zones, have a signalling role by, among other things, encouraging industry and motorists to increasingly switch to greener drive types.  

Finally, advances in the world of technology and environmental research continue to surprise us with findings that what used to be considered sustainable can actually have a negative impact on the climate. If the regulations on low emission zones keep up with the times to some extent, politicians will therefore, despite criticism, still rely on environmentally protective traffic measures such as low emission zones to limit these negative consequences on the ground. Regardless of whether everyone will then drive an electric car or not. In this sense, the implementation of electric mobility will not mean an end to environmental zones. 

However, all this is only in the future. Until then, motorists should not forget all the environmental zone regulations still active in Europe. As always, all information is available on our website and in the Green Zones app.