EU policy on vehicle emissions is biased towards electrification, the trade association FuelsEurope argued on Monday (4 December), as it presented a study suggesting that a gradual switch from diesel to zero-emissions cars would have almost no impact on urban air quality by 2030.

FuelsEurope director John Cooper presented the results of the study, commissioned from the British air quality intelligence provider Aeris, which based its modelling on real driving emissions data provided by the engineering and environmental consultancy Ricardo, which used its own tests of Euro 6 compliant diesel cars.

The Euro standard sets per-kilometre limits on exhaust pipe pollutants other than CO2, which is dealt with on other legislation. Since the Euro 3 standard – the first where NOx was treated separately – was introduced at the turn of the century, the limit for diesel cars has fallen from 500mg per kilometre to 80mg under the current Euro 6, although a ‘conformity factor’ currently allows measured pollution to exceed this level by 110%, according to Euractiv.com.

“Our concern is that the focus has all been about increasing tightness in new vehicle standards,” said Fuels Europe director John Cooper. In fact, there have already been calls for a stricter Euro 7 standard, including a recent open letter from the mayors of ten European capitals who also urged a switch to zero-emissions vehicles within two decades.

Cooper was speaking the day before energy ministers were due to discuss the European Commission’s recent ‘clean mobility package’ proposal to reduce CO2 emissions limits for cars and vans by 30% through the decade to 2030.

Although environmentalists and electricity generators were disappointed that the EU executive did not include a binding quota for zero-emissions vehicles (ZEVs), oil refiners are clearly concerned that the general drift of European policy is moving away from the internal combustion engine to support for electric vehicles.

The European Parliament’s current position on reform to the 2009 Renewable Energy Directive calls for a target on the use of renewable biofuels in transport – which need to be refined just as crude oil does.

“Proposals from the parliament on RED II require 12% energy content, which could give something like 9 to 10% better GHG intensity of the fuel,” Cooper asserted. This not reflected in the car emissions tests, he pointed out.

“So that starts to create basically a bias in the test towards electrification – it does not recognise the improvement in the fuel,” he argued, calling for a system based not just on exhaust pipe emissions but on a life-cycle analysis including the manufacture of batteries.

‘No difference’ between Euro 6 diesel and EVs

Central to the refinery lobby’s argument is modelling by Aeris suggesting “there is almost no difference in population exposure” to particulate and NO2 pollution in two scenarios: one in which old cars are replaced by new Euro 6 compliant diesels, and another where they are replaced with zero emissions vehicles.

“It really makes no difference which vehicle somebody chooses,” Cooper said, suggesting emissions from Euro 6 compliant diesel engines were comparable to those of electric vehicles.