Tag Archives: Euro 7

News

Euro 7’s Shockwave: Why EVs Won’t Be ‘Zero-Emission’ Anymore

For more than a decade, Europe has treated the electric car like a saint on four wheels. No tailpipe, no CO₂, no fuss. EV owners floated through low-emission zones with the serenity of monks, parked for free in city centers, and watched diesel drivers sweat through tax hikes.

That era is about to end.

Starting in 2026, the new Euro 7 emissions standard delivers a jolt no one saw coming: electric vehicles will officially lose their “zero-emission” status. For the first time, EVs gain their own set of emission limits—and not because of their motors.

This time, the villains are brake dust and tire particles.

The Day the EV Halo Slipped

Euro 7 represents one of the most radical pivots in European automotive regulation since catalytic converters became mandatory. Until now, electric cars lived outside the rules entirely, shielded from the standards governing combustion vehicles. No tailpipe meant no problem.

But policymakers have realized what engineers have quietly known for years: there is no such thing as a perfectly clean car. Even an EV sheds material every time it slows down or rolls forward.

Brakes grind away microscopic particles. Tires fling rubber dust into the air. Multiply that by the growing armada of electric SUVs that routinely weigh 2.2 tons or more, and suddenly Europe sees a pollution source hiding in plain sight.

EVs vs. Diesels: A Surprising Plot Twist

Here’s the part that will make diesel loyalists smirk:
Some electric SUVs, thanks to their hefty battery packs, produce more particulate matter from brakes and tires than a modern compact diesel car with a filter-equipped exhaust.

Read that again.

For decades, the conversation around emissions began and ended at the tailpipe. Euro 7 blows that mindset apart. Instead, the new standard evaluates the car as a whole—its mass, its materials, its total environmental footprint, not just its exhaust.

Privileges on the Chopping Block

The fallout will be immediate and dramatic:

  • Access to low-emission zones may no longer be automatic.
  • CO₂ tax exemptions could erode.
  • Free or discounted EV parking in urban centers may disappear.
  • Automakers could face a new engineering war—not around engines but around weight reduction, brake design, and tire chemistry.

The electric car will still be cleaner than a gas-burner in most measurable ways, but the halo effect is fading. For the first time, an EV becomes a regulated polluter.

What Euro 7 Really Means

Let’s be clear: this isn’t a backdoor attempt to resurrect the internal-combustion engine. Euro 7 doesn’t give diesels or gasoline cars any easier ride. Instead, the new rules reflect a broader, more nuanced understanding of what pollution looks like in 2026 and beyond.

Europe is shifting the conversation:

  • From tailpipes to total impact.
  • From engines to overall vehicle mass.
  • From CO₂ to everything a car emits during motion.

It’s a high-voltage message to automakers:
If you want to build the future, every gram counts. Literally.

Euro 7 is not just another emissions standard. It’s a philosophical reset, one that wipes away the simplistic idea of the “perfectly clean EV” and replaces it with a more realistic, more technical, and ultimately more demanding framework.

Electric cars aren’t being punished—they’re being scrutinized. And for an industry racing toward electrification, that scrutiny will reshape everything from tire compounds to chassis materials.

In 2026, Europe won’t just regulate cars.
It will redefine what “clean” means.

Source: Reuters

News

BMW M Confirms Straight-Six and V8 Engines Will Survive Euro 7 – With No Performance Loss

As emissions regulations continue to tighten across Europe, fears have grown over the future of traditional performance powertrains. But according to BMW M’s top executive, fans of the brand’s iconic straight-six and V8 engines can breathe easy — at least for now.

Speaking at the 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed, BMW M CEO Frank van Meel reaffirmed the brand’s commitment to its hallmark powerplants, confirming that both the straight-six and V8 engines will remain in the lineup despite the tougher Euro 7 emissions standards coming into force.

Crucially, Van Meel emphasized that performance will not be sacrificed to meet compliance.

“The challenge was not so much to make an engine that is EU7 compliant,” Van Meel told Autocar, “but to keep performance.”

The upcoming Euro 7 regulations, which build on the current Euro 6e framework, don’t lower the permissible emissions limits per se. However, they do introduce a much broader range of real-world testing conditions — including cold starts, dynamic driving, and higher load scenarios. Furthermore, engines must now remain compliant for up to 10 years or 200,000 kilometers (124,000 miles), double the duration previously mandated.

Perhaps most notably, Euro 7 will mark the first time that non-exhaust emissions — namely brake and tyre particulates — are also monitored.

Van Meel acknowledged the engineering challenges involved, especially around thermal management. Traditional methods of using extra fuel for cooling during high-performance operation — known as enrichment — are no longer viable under the stricter rules, which require combustion to occur at “lambda one,” the ideal air-fuel ratio.

“Normally, if you are in high-performance situations, you cool using the fuel,” Van Meel explained. “With EU7, that’s impossible, so you need to find different ways of avoiding temperature build-up.”

BMW M engineers have therefore focused on refining the combustion process and optimizing cooling efficiency, though Van Meel stopped short of revealing exactly how these results have been achieved. “Very interesting” changes have been made to both engines, with technical details expected to follow closer to production.

What is clear, however, is that downsizing is not on the table.

Asked whether BMW M would consider three- or four-cylinder engines augmented by hybrid systems to meet future regulations, Van Meel responded with a firm “No.”

“The six-cylinder in-line engine is our legacy, and the V8 has got a long history in racing, so we intend to keep going,” he said. “I couldn’t imagine putting a four-cylinder in an M5.”

According to Van Meel, such engines do not align with BMW M’s philosophy — particularly when it comes to torque characteristics, powerband behavior, and overall vehicle weight.

For now, this is welcome news for purists. In an age of increasing electrification and regulatory constraints, BMW M is drawing a line in the sand: performance without compromise, tradition without dilution.

Source: BMW

News

Euro 7 will apply to EVs

Although the European Union planned to apply the new Euro 7 standards from 2026, increasing pressure from manufacturers forced the EU to postpone this decision until the end of the decade. This meant easing the existing Euro 6 norm, but also giving more time for adaptation. Now the European Parliament says that Euro 7 will apply to electric cars as well.

Europe is trying to eliminate ICE cars from its roads at all costs, and one of the steps is to ban the sale of ICE vehicles from 2035. For now, it seems almost impossible, but the European Parliament has established interim measures to continue reducing CO2 emissions.

If you’re wondering what kind of harmful emissions electric cars produce, here’s the answer. With the new regulation, the measurements will not only take into account the emissions from the exhaust pipes, but also the emissions of other particles that are also harmful to health, such as microplastics or microdust that is thrown out by the wear of tires or brakes. This measure will apply to all cars, regardless of their powertrain.

Euro 7 regulations will apply from 2030, and many analysts are convinced that they will not give the expected result. However, all manufacturers must adapt to the new emissions limit, and the WLTP protocol measures the pollution data of every new car in the European Union (CO2 and NOx particles). Any deviation from the legal regulations entails a penalty for each additional gram of CO2. This has already started to show certain consequences, and an example is the Honda Civic Type R with a price of more than 100,000 euros.

Of course, some electric car manufacturers are not happy with this decision, so the EU has proposed special measures that mainly relate to battery life. This means an additional investment of huge amounts of money in development, which will be a great financial pressure on European manufacturers who are currently struggling with competitors from China. Of course, all this will be paid by customers with higher car prices.

Source: Reuters