Piedmont: No tightening for diesel vehicles in northern Italy
Actually, there should be a ban on diesel Euro5 vehicles in Piedmont in Italy soon. 76 municipalities would be affected. Now the council has put the changes on hold for the time being. A sigh of relief for the owners of the approximately 140,000 vehicles.
As recently as August, the Piedmont Council in northern Italy had confirmed the tightening of the rules in the environmental zones. These would have banned diesel vehicles with Euro standard 5 on weekdays. Now, however, a decree has been passed, postponing the ban for at least 1 year, until October 2024, perhaps even longer. Actually, the ban should have come into force this Friday, 15.09.2023.
One of the reasons for the quick decision against the tightening is, according to information from the council, the unreasonableness for the affected male and female motorists. They are to be given more time for the changeover. Previously, there had been massive protests by citizens. First, the air quality plans of the 76 affected municipalities, including the metropolis of Turin, are to be updated. The council wants to check what results have been achieved by implementing the plans so far and adjust the measures accordingly. At the same time, the Council wants to carry out new air measurements to evaluate whether the tightening of the rules in the environmental zones is still necessary at all.
In addition, the Council has already made the plan that only municipalities with more than 30,000 inhabitants, where there is usually a well-developed local transport network, should be affected by a possible ban. In this way, those affected can be offered alternatives. The proposal associated with this is that all municipalities that fall into the above category and whose air quality has poor values have the right to introduce the ban on diesel Euro5 vehicles from October 2024. It would then be mandatory for these cities from October 2025.
Nevertheless, diesel Euro5 vehicles could be banned in Piedmont even before this date, at least temporarily. Since there are many temporary zones locally, driving bans can be imposed at short notice if the air quality is poor. The Council envisages banning Euro3 and Euro4 diesel vehicles for three consecutive days, even at weekends, when particulate matter PM10 exceeds 50 µg/m3. These are otherwise only barred from the zones during the week. If the value even rises above 75 µg/m3 on three consecutive days, Euro5 diesel vehicles are also to be banned for a short time.
Detailed information on the zones in Piedmont and other regions of Italy can be found on our website.