Diesel cars "are finished" says EU commissioner

European commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska has courted controversy among the car industry by declaring diesel cars as "the technology of the past", predicting that they will "completely disappear" in "several years".

Talking to Bloomberg, Bienkowska attributed Volkswagen's Dieselgate as
the motivation for consumers and regulators, like the EU, to turn its back on the fuel.

Describing it as a "breakthrough moment", the EU commissioner said that the scandal had deeply affected "the emotions in society towards emissions and cleaner cars".

"Diesel cars are finished," Bienkowska said during the interview with the newswire. "I think in several years they will completely disappear. This is the technology of the past."

Believing the car industry is on the eve of technological revolution in road transport, the senior EU official places her faith in pure-electric vehicles as the solution to meet clean-air goals in European member states.

"People have realised that we will never have completely clean – without NOx – diesel cars," says the Polish EU commissioner.

The outspoken comments against diesel follow last weeks new plans by EU governments to give the EU commission new powers to fine automakers €30,000 ($A45,000) per car for failing to comply with emission regulations.

The Commission can also now force car-makers to trigger recalls to fix software cheats.

Describing part of the problem with car makers cheating emissions as general "arrogance", Bienkowska also criticised some car brands close ties to national governments.

To help encourage the push to pure-electric cars, in the future the commission could help the likes of Daimler and BMW finance battery development, said the EU official.

"We want to have the first batteries produced in Europe, but also the whole value chain," Bienkowska said.

"It's the kind of a project that a single member state cannot afford."

Currently, European electric sales are only around 1.5 per cent of all registrations, but that's set to rise to 5 per cent by 2021 and "take-off" in 2025, according to automotive industry analysts.

To help create the conditions for adoption of battery-powered vehicles quicker, Bienkowska says the commission will step up its legal threats against several EU countries, including Germany and Italy, to force local producers there to meet European agreed limits for NOx.

The senior EU official also wants car makers to speed up their rate of recall in Eastern European countries like Romania, Slovakia and Poland.

"We don't want those parts of Europe to be full of old diesel cars."