Automakers active in European Union countries are generally ok with the sales ban on new cars equipped with internal combustion engines from 2035. However, car companies must face a more aggressive deadline in roughly two years’ time pertaining to stricter ICE emissions regulations. Based on the current schedule, the Euro 7 standard will be implemented in July 2025.
Speaking during BMW AG’s 103rd Annual General Meeting in Munich, CEO Oliver Zipse said the planned date is “entirely unfeasible.” He went on to describe the framework as being based on “totally unrealistic driving situations becoming the rule” that will force car manufacturers to “deal with any and all exceptional situations.”
The 59-year-old executive believes that despite much tighter legislation, there still won’t be any improvement in air quality since the planned mandates focus on unrealistic situations: “How often, for example, do you drive up a mountain pass, at full throttle, in minus seven degrees, in a car that is fully loaded and pulling a trailer?”
Oliver Zipse says the current directive for Euro 7 “is simply not going to work!” His solution? To stop focusing on special and extreme cases and delay the standard’s implementation until mid-2027. BMW’s head honcho mentioned politics is “increasingly impacting our business.”
The German luxury marque has been quite vocal about not rushing the demise of the ICE, claiming the transition to EVs can’t happen overnight. To date, BMW has put more than 600,000 electric cars on the road and wants zero-emission vehicles to account for more than half of annual global sales by 2030. It will be ready to go purely electric even before the end of the decade in certain markets should that be mandated.
Tighter emissions regulations have already prompted BMW to discontinue the V12 as well as the quad-turbodiesel inline-six engine. The new 7 Series can’t be had with a V8 in the EU while the next-generation 5 Series in regular versions won’t be offered with an eight-cylinder engine as only the M5 will keep the V8.
Source: BMW
