Hamburg, the second-largest city in Germany, will ban older diesel vehicles from selected urban areas starting from next week, marking the first diesel driving ban in the country.
Starting from May 31, Hamburg will prevent cars and trucks that don’t meet at least the Euro-6 emission standards from using certain parts of key roads and avenues in the city, Bloomberg reports. Vehicles compliant with Euro-6 standards went on sale in 2014.
The decision came after a court rule in February which opened the door to municipal restrictions on where diesel cars can operate. Add to that the mounting pressure from EU, which sued Germany and other member states which failed to meet targets on nitrogen oxide and particulate matter in the air. Last year more than 65 cities in Germany recorded over-the-limit NOx levels.
Germany’s administrative court in Leipzig said in February that consumers have to accept the bans.
“Such restrictions, in their intensity, do not go beyond other passage and stopping bans as justified by road law requirements, which motorists always have to reckon with and which they principally have to accept.”
Of the 15 million diesel cars in Germany, only 2.7 million are compliant with the latest Euro-6 technology. BMW, Volkswagen and PSA are already offering deals to customers wishing to switch to a petrol-powered car if they’re affected by driving bans.
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