From January 1, the low-emission zone (LEZ) in the Brussels-Capital Region will be tightened. Diesel vehicles with Euro 5 standards and gasoline vehicles with Euro 2 standards will no longer be allowed to enter. Brussels car dealers are noticing this tightening, writes BRUZZ. For example, the banned Euro 5 diesels have become a lot cheaper on the second-hand market.
According to BRUZZ, at the end of June, there were still 33,000 Brussels vehicles on the road that will no longer be allowed in the region from January 1, including 23,000 passenger cars. In 96% of cases, these were Euro 5 diesel vehicles.
Mainly interest from Wallonia
These cars will still end up on the second-hand market, resulting in a sharp drop in the price of Euro 5 diesel cars, sometimes by as much as 40%. Brussels dealers are seeing that there is a particular interest in this type of car from Wallonia, where, unlike in Flanders, particularly in Antwerp and Ghent, there is no LEZ.
On 2dehands, you can find a VW Golf 6 built between 2010 and 2013 for between €2,800 and €5,850, for example. The higher the mileage, the cheaper the price, of course. By contrast, newer or more compliant diesel cars, often Euro 6, are priced noticeably higher, namely for about €6,469 (on Gocar).
The price of a Euro 5 diesel may have become a lot cheaper, but it is not as if you can make an exceptional bargain, because in general, car prices have been rising for some time, both for new vehicles and recent used cars. The demand for second-hand gasoline cars and (plug-in) hybrids has increased, keeping their prices high in the second-hand market.
Export
There is not much research on price changes for banned cars and LEZs, or on cities that have introduced similar systems, but the market logic is the same everywhere: cars that do not meet the stricter requirements are worth much less than cars that do, which is self-evident.
According to Auto Trader, for example, you can see that in London, second-hand diesel cars that meet ULEZ requirements cost an average of £19,991, compared to £7,995 for vehicles that do not – a price difference of around £12,000 or €14,000.
But you also see that a large proportion of the rejected cars is exported. This phenomenon is also known as ‘carbon leakage’ of the export of pollution. The port of Antwerp, for example, is one of the most important hubs for exporting used vehicles to West Africa. At the same time, the Heyvaert district in Brussels is a hub for the trade in older cars that are exported directly, either via the port of Antwerp or elsewhere.
However, countries in the ECOWAS region, comprising 15 West African countries, have introduced stricter rules since 2021. They are increasingly refusing vehicles older than five or 1ten years and requiring at least the Euro 4 standard. This means that the ‘real wrecks’ now more often go to countries with even fewer rules, or that they ultimately end up in European scrap processing.
