The differences between Euro 5 and Euro 6 trucks

Is a Euro 5 truck really more polluting than a Euro 6 truck? Are the emissions from a Euro 5 truck really harmful to the environment? What is the difference between a Euro 5 truck and a Euro 6 truck?

The European Union has for several years now introduced standards to classify vehicles according to their emissions.

Euro 2, Euro 5, Euro 6, are now part of the common language of all motorists, but few know exactly what they mean; trucks also meet this standard, which is constantly evolving.

For example, our fleet is entirely Euro 5 or Euro 6, and will be entirely Euro 6 by the end of 2020, to be environmentally friendly.

The standard that regulates euro 6 trucks

To understand what a truck’s requirements are to fall into the Euro 6 category, it is necessary to look at the Sept. 1, 2014, European legislation, which was created to drastically reduce emissions, including from trucks and buses.

It is in the text of the law that the emission levels within which vehicles must fall are contained. Compared with the Euro 5 standard, the Euro 6 standard for trucks is particularly stringent: nitrogen oxide emissions are reduced by about 80 percent, while particulate emissions are reduced by 66 percent.

The law obviously distinguishes between different types of trucks based on weight, and for each category it imposes a cap on emissions.

This table summarizes the allowed parameters according to vehicle type.

The Euro 6 regulation then has some subclasses: 6a, 6b, 6c and 6d-TEMP and 6d. Each of these corresponds to a new revision of one or more European standards; the latest in a temporal sense is 6d, which is mandatory for cars type-approved from January 1, 2020.

Theenvironmental impact of a Euro 6 truck is significantly less than that of a Euro 5, but this is not the only advantage: maintenance costs, due to technological standards, are also much lower and components more durable.

According to various analyses, the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) of a Euro 6 truck is significantly lower than that of a Euro 5, even with a small “flaw,” which is that the introduced anti-pollution devices have their own weight, and thus slightly reduce the carrying capacity.