EC brings forward new CO2 emissions targets for new heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) from 2030
Tue 14 February 2023
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The European Commission has proposed new CO2 emissions targets for heavy-duty vehicles from 2030 onwards. Trucks, city and long-distance buses are responsible for over 6% of total EU greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and more than 25% of GHG emissions from road transport.
The Commission says that these strengthened emissions standards will ensure that this segment of the road transport sector contributes to the shift to zero-emissions mobility and the EU's climate and zero pollution objectives.
The Commission proposes phasing in stronger CO2 emissions standards for almost all new HDVs with certified CO2 emissions, compared to 2019 levels. The proposals are for a 45% emissions reduction from 2030; 65% from 2035 and 90% from 2040.
To stimulate faster deployment of zero-emission buses in cities, the Commission also proposes to make all new city buses zero-emission as of 2030.
Emissions in the European HDV sector have been increasing year-on-year since 2014 with the exception of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Especially in the freight sector, emissions are increasing rapidly. This is mainly due to growing road transport demand, which is expected to keep rising in the future. In 2019, freight emissions were 44% higher than emissions from the aviation sector and 37% higher than maritime transport emissions.
The vast majority of heavy-duty vehicles in the EU fleet (99%) currently run on internal combustion engines, fuelled largely by imported fossil fuels such as diesel. This adds to the EU's energy dependency and current volatility of the energy market.
To support this proposal, investments need to be channelled into zero-emission vehicles and into the recharging and refuelling infrastructure, and the Commission has already proposed the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation to develop the necessary charging infrastructure to support the green transition of the heavy duty vehicles sector. In particular, the Commission proposed to install charging and fuelling points at regular intervals on major highways: every 60 kilometres for electric charging and every 150 kilometres for hydrogen refuelling. The Commission says it is working intensively with the co-legislators to finalise the negotiations on these proposals.
Frans Timmermans, the EU’s climate commissioner, said that the EU will “eventually” move to a 100 per cent emissions reduction target. He said: “At this stage we cannot say when all uses of buses and trucks can be zero emissions with the technology currently available, especially where it concerns very challenging driving conditions such as very steep mountains and icy conditions”.
Environmental campaigners (reported in the Financial Times), however, criticised the targets saying that they are not ambitious enough. Fedor Unterlohner, freight manager at the environmental campaign group Transport & Environment (T&E) said:“This target would pull the plug on the rapid electrification of trucks. The electric car surge will not be repeated [for heavy goods vehicles].”
Related News: The European Parliament has formally approved a law to effectively ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in the European Union from 2035. The rules will require that by 2035 carmakers must achieve a 100% cut in CO2 emissions from new cars sold, which would make it impossible to sell new fossil fuel-powered vehicles in the 27-countries of the EU.
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