German City of Hamburg To Ban Older Diesel Vehicles

Banning diesel cars has is becoming more of a norm now, as it's considered to be the most polluting of fuels. We've had a ban in India too but Germany is taking things a lot more seriously. Hamburg, Germany's second largest city, will ban the most polluting diesel vehicles from two major streets from next week, a move that could spur others to follow suit and raise pressure on carmakers to consider costly vehicle refits.

The city is home to around 1.8 million people, and the ban will come into effect on May 31 on those diesel cars which do not meet the latest Euro-6 emissions standards. The bans in Hamburg affect a section of about 1.6 km on Stresemannstrasse, where the restrictions will apply only to commercial vehicles weighing 3.5 tonnes or more, and a section of about 580 metres on Max-Brauer-Allee, covering all diesel vehicles. Both thoroughfares are in Altona, a busy district in the west of the city.

This follows a ruling in February by Germany's top administrative court that the cities of Stuttgart and Duesseldorf should consider bans for older diesels.

Bans on diesel vehicles from city centres are also planned in Paris, Madrid, Mexico City and Athens by 2025, while the mayor of Copenhagen wants to bar new diesel cars from entering the city centre as soon as next year.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's government has long sought to avoid bans, as has the VDA auto industry lobby representing carmakers such as Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW. Environment Minister Svenja Schulze - a member of the Social Democrats, junior partners in Merkel's coalition government - urged carmakers to roll out retrofits for diesel cars to lower emissions.

Levels of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emitted by diesel engines and known to cause respiratory disease should fall significantly as more efficient Euro-6 models are sold and emissions-cleaning software updates take effect.

Of the 330,000 diesel cars on Hamburg's roads, only about 116,000 have the Euro-6 technology that was introduced in 2014, according to local government data.