A senior EU official has declared that diesel automobiles “are finished”, predicting they will disappear from European roads within years.
Elzbieta Bienkowska, the EU’s Commissioner for internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) said the dieselgate scandal offered a “breakthrough moment” for consumers, considerably affecting “emotions in society toward emissions and cleaner cars”.
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• new WLTP/RDE fuel economy and emissions tests could still be unrealistic
Bienkowska, the former deputy prime minister of Poland, told Bloomberg: “Diesel automobiles are finished… I think in several years they will completely disappear. This is the technology of the past.” Her comments come as carmakers face difficult new emissions laws from 2020, although a new nitrogen oxide (NOx)-busting system from Bosch could allow automobiles to undercut these by practically 90 per cent.
However, Bienkowska believes “people have understood that we will never have completely clean – without NOx – diesel cars”, adding carmakers had displayed “arrogance” in their attitude towards emissions.
EU chiefs recently unveiled plans to put Europe at the forefront of electric car battery production, an industry currently dominated by Asian and American firms. Bienkowska stated: “We want to have the first batteries produced in Europe, but also the whole value chain”.
New EU laws objective to avoid another Dieselgate scandal
The European Parliament recently approved new laws aiming to avoid another ‘Dieselgate’ emissions scandal from taking place.