DfT Plans Euro 7 Brake, Tyre and Battery Rules for Every New Car From 2027

• The Department for Transport (DfT) has proposed that every new car and van sold in Great Britain meets the Euro 7 standard, with all new registrations covered from 29 November 2027.
• Euro 7 adds limits on brake and tyre particles, minimum capacity rules for electric car batteries and anti-tampering protection for emissions systems.
• The consultation closed on 25 May 2026 and no government response was on GOV.UK when this article was written, so Euro 7 is not yet law in Great Britain.

DfT Wants Euro 7 Brake, Tyre and Battery Rules on Every New Car by November 2027

The Department for Transport has put forward a plan to bring the European Union’s latest emission standard, Euro 7, to every new car and van sold in Great Britain. The proposal sits in a consultation called “Updating the minimum emission standard for new road vehicles”, published on 13 April 2026 and closed on 25 May 2026.

It is a proposal, not a law. When this article was written the consultation page on GOV.UK still showed it as closed, with no government response attached. DfT says it will publish a summary of responses and its own answer on the same page. A new statutory instrument would then be needed to write Euro 7 into Great Britain’s type approval rules, and no such instrument has been made. Nothing in the consultation changes what a driver has to do today.

The timetable is what makes it worth reading now. DfT proposes to copy the EU dates exactly. That would make Euro 7 compulsory for all new cars and vans registered in Great Britain from 29 November 2027, with brand new vehicle types covered a year earlier, on 29 November 2026. The department describes the aim as seeking views on a proposal “to update the minimum emission standard to Euro 7” for new cars, vans, trucks, buses and coaches.

What Euro 7 Adds to the Rules Your Next Car Must Meet

Great Britain’s cars and vans currently follow Euro 6d, which came into UK law from EU rules kept after Brexit. Northern Ireland already applies the newer Euro 6e under the Windsor Framework. Euro 7 includes everything in Euro 6e, such as tighter error margins on on-road emissions tests and flags that show when software has changed how a car controls its emissions, and then adds more.

For tailpipe emissions, DfT says the pollutant limits for cars and vans stay the same as Euro 6e. What changes is the size of the particles that count. The particle number limit moves to the PN10 scale from PN23, so smaller particles fall under the rules. Durability and lifetime compliance requirements also extend, so a car has to stay within its limits for longer.

The bigger shift covers what comes off brakes and tyres. DfT points to the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory, which estimates that non-exhaust emissions from brakes and tyres are now the dominant source of fine particulate matter from road transport in the UK. Euro 7 brings in new limits on brake wear and tyre abrasion. Drivers who rarely think about brake dust or tyre wear would find those become part of the approval process for the car they buy.

Electric and plug-in hybrid cars face a separate set of battery rules. Euro 7 introduces minimum capacity retention thresholds over defined mileage and time periods. Vehicles would also have to carry accurate, accessible and comparable battery health monitors. DfT says this is meant to build confidence in the second-hand electric car market by standardising the information buyers get on battery condition. The consultation describes these as requirements for new vehicles, so cars already on the road would not be affected.

Two further changes apply to every new car. Vehicles would need on-board monitoring that tracks exhaust emissions in real time and can warn the driver when repairs to emissions control systems could be needed. Manufacturers would also have to protect emissions control and engine management systems against tampering, which is aimed at the kind of software and hardware interference that DfT says it wants to prevent.

The Dates DfT Has Put on the Calendar

The consultation sets out a staggered timetable. For cars and vans, new vehicle types would need Euro 7 approval from 29 November 2026. All new registrations would follow on 29 November 2027. Cars approved to Euro 6d or Euro 6e could still be registered up to a last registration date of 28 November 2027.

Small volume manufacturers get longer. Their last registration date for older standards would be 30 June 2030, with Euro 7 compulsory for all their new registrations from 1 July 2030. Tyre limits run on a separate clock: 1 July 2028 for car tyres, 1 April 2030 for van tyres and 1 April 2032 for truck and bus tyres. Trucks, buses and coaches would follow from 29 May 2028 for new types and 29 May 2029 for all new registrations, and DfT says a further consultation will cover heavy vehicles once the EU legislation is available.

DfT proposes to implement Euro 7 by accepting EU and UNECE Euro 7 type approvals under the Great Britain Whole Vehicle Type Approval framework. It says this avoids extra testing for manufacturers and keeps Great Britain aligned with Northern Ireland and the EU. Regulation (EC) No 715/2007, the current Euro 6 rulebook, would stay in place as an alternative route for small volume manufacturers until 30 June 2030.

The consultation does not put a price on any of this. It lists policy objectives, which are cleaner air, confidence in second-hand electric cars, alignment with EU type approval rules and lower administrative burdens for manufacturers. It gives no estimate of what Euro 7 would add to the cost of a new car, so any figure quoted for a price rise is not coming from DfT’s consultation page.

The Testing Body Says It Cannot Keep Up With Current Rules

One part of the consultation deals with how cars are checked once they are on the road. In-service conformity testing checks that vehicles keep meeting the emission standards they were approved to, throughout their lifetime. Under the retained rules, the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) has to verify 5 percent of each manufacturer’s testing families, or at least two families per manufacturer, every year.

DfT says the VCA is the only approval authority under the Great Britain system, so it carries the whole load. In 2025 the agency checked 21 vehicles from 7 families. With the full rollout of Great Britain type approval, DfT forecasts up to 72 vehicles in 2026 and up to 222 vehicles in 2027. The 2026 figure is more than three times the number of families tested in 2024 by Germany’s approval authority, which runs one of the largest programmes in the EU. DfT calls that scale undeliverable, citing resourcing challenges, supplier capacity and competing priorities.

The department’s answer is to replace the mandatory minimum with optional testing of at least one family per manufacturer each year, backed by a minimum overall annual volume of testing. It argues that targeting the families judged most at risk of non-conformity is better value. For drivers, the practical point is that the body responsible for catching cars that pollute more on the road than in the lab is asking for its legal duty to be loosened at the same time as the standard gets tougher on paper.

What It Means for Plug-In Hybrid Drivers and Company Car Tax

Plug-in hybrids sit at the centre of one of the sharpest numbers in the document. DfT says CO2 emissions from plug-in hybrids are almost 2.5 times higher in real life than recorded in the testing cycle. The updated rules change how the official CO2 figure is calculated, in two stages, to close that gap.

Higher official figures could, in some situations, raise the benefit in kind tax due on plug-in hybrid company cars. The government has already introduced a benefit in kind tax easement for these vehicles. It applies across the UK, retrospectively from January 2025 to April 2028, and DfT says it would also cover vehicles approved to Euro 7 if Great Britain adopts the standard.

The zero emission vehicle mandate has a similar safeguard. The Vehicle Emissions Trading Schemes Order has been amended so manufacturers can use CO2 values calculated under Euro 6d for the non-zero-emission part of their compliance, where the vehicle is approved to Euro 6e. DfT says it will make sure that flexibility continues to apply to Euro 7 vehicles.

What to Do Before the Government Responds

There is nothing to do today. Euro 6d cars remain legal to buy, register and drive, and a car that meets today’s standard would not become illegal if Euro 7 arrives. The proposal only covers new vehicles.

If you plan to order a new car in late 2027, ask the dealer which emission standard it is approved to and what its registration date will be. Under DfT’s proposed dates, a Euro 6d or Euro 6e car could be registered up to 28 November 2027, while anything registered after that would need Euro 7 approval. Stock that sits on a forecourt past the cut-off is a question worth putting to the seller before signing.

If you run a plug-in hybrid as a company car, the benefit in kind easement running to April 2028 is the date to note, and your employer or accountant is the right person to ask how the official CO2 figure for your model is being treated. If you are shopping for a used electric car, the battery health monitor and capacity retention rules are a sign of where the market is heading, but they would only reach cars approved after Euro 7 applies.

The two documents that will settle the matter are DfT’s published response to the consultation and the statutory instrument that would carry the rules into law. Until a statutory instrument is made, with a commencement date set out in it, every date in this article is a proposal rather than a legal deadline.

Sources:

• Updating the minimum emission standard for new road vehicles (Department for Transport, GOV.UK)