Strange that nobody has mentioned it here (obviously if it was in the UK it'd be posted in 5 minutes as if it actually happened in Ireland) but the momentum against diesels is gathering pace at an almighty rate in diesel loving Germany, with an
astounding decision yesterday by a court for a blanket ban of all but the newest diesel cars in Frankfurt to protect the health of citizens (not too dissimilar to the reasoning behind the smoking ban being seen as being necessary).
Up to now, Euro 3 diesels and lower were banned from most cities, but that'd be the like of a ford focus from 2000 or older, so the effects on car owners were somewhat limited especially with scrappage deals .
With the new ruling, and theres more cities to follow and possibly a national ruling in the supreme court, Euro 4 is to be banned in the coming spring and unbelievably also Euro 5 in the Autumn, meaning only Euro 6 approved vehicles can drive in Frankfurt and likely other cities to follow in the next weeks with more pending rulings that will be swayed by this precedent .
Euro 6, in Ford Focus terms, is only available since 2014, Golfs from the year before, so theres a LOT of people with 2014 and barely older cars getting banned off the road.
In Germany nobody believed this would happen, the politicians have been flashing plans for bike lanes and whatnot in the courts and were confident that vague promises for some developments sometime in the next decade or 2 were sufficient to placate the courts, and now they really have been caught out and its panic stations to try and find a solution!
Whats the chances of this also happening in Ireland any time soon in towns and cities, are there any cases pending ?