Just a few months ago, we reported that the town of Stuttgart, Germany, wanted to ban all diesel-powered cars from its streets. This was big news because Stuttgart is where Porsche and Mercedes are based. Even entire countries are trying to ban diesel cars from the streets after the whole Volkswagen scandal. According to Automotive News Europe, BMW's hometown of Munich could be the next city to ban diesel-powered vehicles from the streets.

Munich's mayor, Dieter Reiter, told Sueddeutsche Zeitung that the city is considering banning diesel vehicles due to "shocking" NOx emissions in the city. Reiter says that "As much as I would welcome avoiding such bans, I think it is just as unlikely that we can continue to do without bans in the future." When commenting on the recent NOx tests around the city, Reiter said "The results are shocking, nobody expected this." If the ban does go through, it could affect 133,000 and 170,000 vehicles depending on how strict it will be. Diesel cars that meet the latest Euro-6 emission rules would be exempt.

Diesel represents a much larger portion of the market in Europe than it does in the US. In the US, diesel only represents about 3 percent of total auto sales, but it is around 50 percent in Europe. Diesel sales have been declining since Dieselgate took place though, and diesel accounted for only 40 percent of Germany's new car sales in March. Diesel cars are clearly on their way out, and it seems like cities are anxious to get them off the streets.