Why Diesel Cars Are Spoiling Your Summer
- Many antipollution systems deactivate at high temperatures
- Paris bans older cars after pollution soars in heat wave
Photographer: Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP via Getty Images
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Europeans aren’t just sweating through the long, hot summer. City dwellers may be coughing and wheezing more, too.
Diesel vehicles, which still command nearly half the market for new cars, are left with barely any pollution controls when temperatures soar above 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit), according to France’s Petroleum and New Energies Research Institute. That means smog-inducing nitrogen oxide emissions that were at the center of the Volkswagen AG scandal spew into the environment unchecked.