Würzburg, January 31, 2007
If driving bans are threatened this year in order to reduce particulate matter pollution, millions of vehicles could be affected. This is by no means only true for diesel cars. The ADAC has calculated: 4.6 million vehicles with petrol engines complying with the US standard alone are still registered in Germany - in other words, although they have a G catalytic converter, they have not been type-tested in accordance with the European Euro 1 emissions standard and therefore do not receive a sticker. That is 10 percent of the entire car population! This is reported by the industry magazine "kfz-betrieb" in its latest issue no. 5, which will be published on February 1.
The G catalytic converter alone is therefore no guarantee that a vehicle will be spared from driving bans. Drivers can find out which emissions standard a car belongs to by contacting a master vehicle workshop, especially those that carry out emissions tests. The assignment to a standard is not easy: only the emission key number in the vehicle documents provides information about the exhaust emission standard. There are also tips here for owners of older vehicles on how they can protect themselves from the threat of driving bans or enjoy tax benefits. Some cars that were registered before the introduction of the Euro standard can simply be recoded, i.e. they receive the emission key number for Euro 1. There are also upgrade catalytic converters that improve the emissions performance of petrol engines. And for diesel vehicles, branded and independent workshops have a wide range of retrofit particulate filters available.
The so-called fine dust stickers will be issued by MOT workshops from March 1. These master vehicle workshops can be recognized by the sign "Anerkannte AU-Werkstatt".
"kfz-betrieb" is a trade magazine published by Vogel Auto Medien, Würzburg. The most widely read trade magazine in the automotive industry celebrated its 95th anniversary in 2005 and is the official organ of the German Motor Trade (ZDK), the professional lobby for over 40,000 car dealerships and workshops.
If you have any questions, please contact
Jan Rosenow
Editor Service & Technology
Editorial office "kfz-betrieb" weekly journal & online
Vogel Auto Media
97064 Würzburg
Phone +49 931 418-21 79
Fax +49 931 418-20 50
E-mail: jan_rosenow@vogel-automedien.de
