Four Italian regions to introduce ban on old diesel cars from October
The northern Italian regions of Veneto, Lombardy, Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna are set to introduce stringent restrictions on the circulation of older diesel cars starting on Wednesday, October 1st, according to a report from Il Corriere della Sera.
Under the crackdown, diesel vehicles falling into the Euro 5 emission class will be banned from circulating in all municipalities with over 30,000 residents between 8.30am and 6.30pm during the working week (Monday to Friday).
The ban won't apply to weekends and will remain in place until April 15th, 2026, the report said.
According to La Repubblica, motorists flouting the ban on Euro 5 vehicles could face fines of up to €679 if caught.
First announced in September 2023, the restrictions are set to affect over 1.3 million Euro 5 vehicles across the four northern regions, according to Il Corriere della Sera.
The clampdown is part of measures aimed at reducing air pollution in the Po Valley after the European Union hit Rome with multiple infringement procedures in connection with repeated failures to meet the bloc's air quality standards.
The Po Valley, which includes the major cities of Milan, Turin, Bologna and Venice, has long been ranked among the areas with the worst air quality across the entire European continent.
Of 25 Italian cities found to have exceeded the legal threshold for coarse particulate matter, or PM10, in 2024, 21 were located in the Po Valley, according to a report from environmental watchdog Legambiente.
The planned rollout of the regional restrictions on Euro 5 cars has been met with anger by Italian Transport Minister Matteo Salvini.
'It's absolutely unacceptable that Euro 5 cars will no longer be allowed to circulate,' he said on Tuesday.
'This is part of the foolish European measures coming from von der Leyen's Commission, which approved that economic and industrial nonsense called the Green Deal,' Salvini added.
The League party leader also said he was working on an urgent law amendment aimed at preventing the ban from coming into force in October.
The government must 'prevent millions of Italians from having to leave their Euro 5 cars in the garage,' he stressed.
As of Wednesday afternoon, there were no further details as to when the above-mentioned amendment may be submitted to parliament and whether it would seek to repeal or simply delay the enforcement of the restrictions.
Euro 5 is a Europe-wide emission standard introduced in 2011 to limit the emission of harmful pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and particulate matter from vehicles. It was replaced by the more stringent Euro 6 standard in 2015.
Motorists in Italy can verify the emission class of their vehicles by entering the relevant licence plate number on the following Transport Ministry web page or by checking their vehicle registration documents (under section 3).
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