From Bennetts.
For E4, all new bikes sold throughout Europe after 1 January 2017. Anything sold under previous regulations will still be totally legal and won’t be forced to meet harder rules. The new regulations are being applied only to new bikes, and over two stages. The first stage applies to newly-designed machines that first went on sale after 1 January 2016 – so things like Kawasaki’s 2016 ZX-10R and Triumph’s new water-cooled Bonnevilles are already compliant. The second stage, in force from 1 January 2017, applies to existing models, which will have to be updated and retested to prove they pass the new rules.
Compared to the Euro 3 emissions rules that have been in place for the last decade, Euro 4 emissions standards represents a massive step forward. Not only are the absolute limits hugely reduced but the testing methods are becoming tougher and addition durability rules are coming into force to ensure that bikes remain emissions-compliant even as they get older.
Although there are different restrictions depending on a bike’s capacity and performance, the most important numbers are the ones that apply to unrestricted bikes over 125cc. They see CO (carbon monoxide) levels dropping from 2.0g/km (grams per kilometre) to 1.14g/km. Hydrocarbons will be cut from 0.3g/km to 0.17g/km and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) are cut from 0.15g/km to 0.09g/km.
