More environmental zones and driving bans thanks to e-cars?
In order to achieve the EU's climate goals, the EU is promoting the sale of e-cars enormously. And they also want to enforce their goal with stricter regulations for combustion cars.
Within the next 10 years, Brussels wants to put 30 million e-cars on European roads. In order to make electromobility more attractive, the EU wants to invest, among other things, in charging stations for e- and hydrogen vehicles. Improved emissions trading as well as tax and toll systems should also support the sale of e-cars. The expansion of passenger and freight transport is also intended to reduce the load on Europe's roads and help achieve the European climate goals.
Above all, however, the EU also wants to turn the tide towards e-cars by imposing stricter requirements on the automotive industry: The planned Euro7 emissions standard will make it difficult to almost impossible to sell new cars with combustion engines from 2025 onwards, as the specified emission values are so low that the automotive industry will hardly be able to meet them. This is a hard lot for the industry. Nevertheless, the EU Commission is sticking to these plans and emphasises that the new Euro standard "will ensure that only future-proof, low-emission vehicles come onto the market".
Whether the so-called low-emission e-cars can actually help to become climate-neutral by 2050 remains questionable. This is because hybrid and e-vehicles have recently come under criticism for their emissions. For example, hybrid vehicles emit up to 12 times more harmful CO2 than the manufacturers claim. Suspicions even go so far as to suggest a deliberate deception of consumers similar to the diesel scandal. It is not yet clear whether e-cars have similarly high CO2 emissions. If this is the case, the mobility revolution will hardly be able to contribute to the EU's climate neutrality.
Electric cars are also not necessarily better than combustion engines in terms of our health. As reported earlier this week, heavy electric cars in particular produce an immense amount of particulate matter through non-exhaust emissions.
It is not yet certain how the EU's plans will affect traffic in reality. What is certain, however, is that the EU's stricter regulations will lead to more bans on combustion engines and old cars.