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FOR THE past 20 years Australian vehicle-emissions standards have taken
their lead from the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. The
latest of these adopted here, the so-called Euro 5, came into effect locally for
all new-design ‘Light Petrol and Diesel’ vehicles in November 2013 and for
existing designs of the same vehicles from November 2016. Light vehicles
are anything less than 3.5 tonne GVM, so pretty much everything that’s a
recreational 4x4. The main impact of Euro 5 over the previous Euro 4 standard
was in the tightening up of the allowable soot (particulate) emission of
diesels, a problem addressed via the introduction of diesel particulate filters.
Euro 6, already in play in Europe and soon to be introduced here, calls for a
reduction in the output of the various oxides of nitrogen, collectively known
as NOx, and brings Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) technology, also
known as AdBlue. Some locally delivered 4x4s, such as the Ford Everest,
already have SCR and meet Euro 6.popular off the back of an EU focus to
bring down carbon dioxide (greenhouse-
gas) pollution in the early 1990s. Diesel
engines are far better than petrol
engines in terms of greenhouse-gas
production, so the EU decided to foster
their development.
Normal market trends are also playing
their part here, with European buyers
starting to turn back to petrol cars
thanks to sophisticated petrol-engine
technology including direct injection
and low-pressure turbocharging, which
brings improved driveability and fuel
efficiency and is finding its way into
more affordable models.
Regardless of the outright
ban, diesels may well
disappear; many car makers
already say that upcoming
diesel emission standards
are too hard to meet anyway,
so come 2040 there may not
actually be any diesels to ban.
All this will, of course,
trickle down to Australia one
way or another. We have
already adopted Euro
emissions standards – for
better or worse – and given
we soon won’t have a local
industry building and
manufacturing cars to our high
standards, we’ll have to be
content with what’s made
overseas.