Berlin could shut out diesel drivers from major arterial roads next year, after a court on Tuesday ordered the German capital to follow in the footsteps of Hamburg, Frankfurt and Stuttgart with exclusion zones.

A renewed focus on air quality in the wake of Volkswagen's 2015 "dieselgate" scandal - in which the car giant admitted to cheating regulatory tests on 11 million cars worldwide - has seen a wave of courtroom action across Germany.

In the capital city, "the current clean air plan does not include sufficient measures to meet annual limits for nitrogen dioxide (NO2)," the Berlin judges said.

City authorities "must order a driving ban for the streets where the threshold is not met," targeting cars up to the Euro 5 emissions standard, they ruled.

Local media estimate that this would affect as many as 200,000 cars, some only three or four years old, with some exceptions, including for tradesmen.

Definite exclusion zones include 11 stretches of major arteries, and Berlin must also examine whether driving bans are needed on a further 15 kilometres (nine miles) of road, a tiny fraction of its total 5,343 kilometres.