EU Commission publishes new CO2 targets for trucks
Ambitious plans, according to commercial vehicle manufacturers: from 2040, new trucks are to be allowed to emit 90 percent less carbon dioxide than in 2019.
The EU Commission has presented new proposals for CO2 limits for trucks. According to this, the CO2 values of newly registered trucks in 2030 are to be 45 percent lower than in the reference year 2019. By 2035, the goal is to achieve a 65 percent reduction, and from 2040, the manufacturers’ truck fleets are to emit at least 90 percent less CO2. The EU Commission is not proposing a complete phase-out of the internal combustion engine in trucks.
Unlike in the past, the new CO2 limits will now also apply to lighter trucks with a gross vehicle weight of five tons or more. Also, for trailers and semi-trailers. The latter could be made more energy-efficient, for example more aerodynamic, which would mean that the tractors would need less fuel and thus emit less CO2, the commission explains.
On the other hand, certain truck groups such as mining, forestry and agricultural vehicles, heavy-duty trucks used in difficult conditions, and refuse trucks are not to be affected by the CO2 levels. Army, police, fire and ambulance vehicles also fall under the exemptions. Manufacturers that only produce a small number of trucks are also to be exempt from the CO2 limits. For the first time, however, city and intercity buses will also be covered by the CO2 limits.
Acea calls proposals “highly ambitious”
For city buses, the EU Commission is even calling for no more new registrations with combustion engines to be permitted from 2030. This would support a trend towards more CO2-free buses, which can already be observed in many European cities.
According to the EU Commission’s ideas, it should be up to the manufacturers to decide which technologies they want to use to achieve the new CO2 limits. The EU Commission’s proposals must now be processed by the European Parliament and the EU member states and adopted into a valid EU law.
In an initial reaction, Acea, the umbrella organization of European truck manufacturers, calls the EU Commission’s plans “highly ambitious.” Acea criticizes that the plans for the new CO2 limits have not been coordinated with the EU Commission’s proposals for a new Euro 7 emissions standard, which were only published in November. Acea is also skeptical about whether the network development of a charging and refueling infrastructure for trucks without CO2 emissions can follow the rhythm of the CO2 reduction proposals at all.
The Greens in the European Parliament, on the other hand, see the Commission’s proposals as a “weak proposal”. “The EU Commission is jeopardizing the climate goal it set itself of making the EU the first climate-neutral continent by 2050,” Green MEP Michael Bloss shared. Environmental associations, as well as companies from industry, had called on the EU Commission to ban the registration of new trucks with combustion engines from 2035. (kw)