![\"London](\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/london_lez_sign-300x200.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I’ve been a bit hard on diesel in recent months. Headlines such as\u00a0“Government must act to combat killer diesel pollution in cities<\/a>”\u00a0<\/em>may have given the impression that\u00a0emissions from diesel vehicles are on a par with untreated nuclear waste.<\/p>\n They’re not of course, although I suspect that diesel particulates probably do cause more health problems than nuclear power stations.<\/p>\n The main targets of my criticism were the EU and\u00a0Euro 5.<\/p>\n The EU because it has chosen to focus myopically on reducing CO2 emissions while ignoring equally dangerous NO2 (nitrogen dioxide) emissions<\/a>.<\/p>\n Euro 5 because it doesn’t work properly<\/a>. The latest-but-one emissions standard turns out to have been\u00a0a spectacular failure at reducing harmful emissions in our towns and cities. That’s because the\u00a0pollution control technology\u00a0used to meet the Euro 5 standard doesn’t actually work in stop-start, low-speed\u00a0conditions.<\/p>\n However, things are improving with Euro 6. In the interests of balance I thought I should highlight some recent commentary from used vehicle\u00a0price bible, Glass’s.<\/p>\n Glass’s view appears to be that imposing new restrictions on diesel vehicles in urban areas would be like shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.<\/p>\n Rupert Pontin, Glass’s head of valuations, points that while some older diesel vehicles undoubtedly pump out too much nitrogen oxide and other potentially harmful substances, those that meet the latest emissions standards are virtually as clean as petrol.\u00a0He said:<\/p>\n “We have no argument against the findings of the various reports on air quality that are pointing the finger at diesel. The science appears to be very robust. However, they are reporting an historic picture. The latest diesel emissions standards are very stringent and newer vehicles are unlikely to have the same kind of impact on the air that we breathe.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Mr Pontin is probably right. Euro 6 is a big step forwards, in that it\u00a0should actually deliver the benefits\u00a0we were promised for Euro 5.<\/p>\n However, I’m not sure Glass’s motives are as pure as they would have you believe. Remember that this is a company funded by people who sell cars for a living. Mr Pontin clearly understands what his customers need:<\/p>\n “There is a general assumption that, for example, a hybrid is always cleaner than a diesel but the picture is not always that straightforward and we are potentially engineering a move away from diesel without looking at all of the facts.<\/i><\/p>\n …<\/p>\n “Of course, there will also be an impact on car and commercial vehicle values if there is general governmental move against diesel. Current and predicated residual values will undoubtedly fall thanks to higher running costs.”<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The problem is that the last thing Mr Pontin’s customers (car dealers) need is any weakness in demand for\u00a0nearly-new and used diesels, of which there is a vast supply.<\/p>\n There is already evidence that car\u00a0drivers who don’t do high mileages are switching back to petrol, in order to avoid the higher purchase prices and costly mid-life repair bills which increasingly characterise modern, low-emission diesels. Some friends of mine did exactly that recently.<\/p>\n For the van market of course, petrol isn’t a serious contender. Anyone covering any distance will continue to use diesels. However, concerns over the harmful effect of diesel emissions remains.<\/p>\n Electric vans are now proven<\/a> to be a viable solution<\/a> in urban environments<\/a> and operations where their\u00a0daily mileage is predictable and\u00a0includes one or more returns to base.\u00a0Vans should also be able to play a role in reducing urban pollution and\u00a0the resultant health problems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A balanced look at the urban diesel emissions debate and why used price bible Glass’s may have chosen to get involved in this discussion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[37],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7575"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7575"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7577,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7575\/revisions\/7577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}