CO2 emission ceiling from heavy-duty vehicles
Lorries, buses and coaches emit around a quarter of the CO2 emissions from road transport in the EU which is some 6% of the EU’s total CO2 emissions. In order to curb these emissions, a proposal to enforce a CO2 emission standard for heavy-duty vehicles was launched by the EU Commission on May 17 2018. From a baseline truck in 2019 the proposal aims through primarily an increase of energy efficiency to:
- lower CO2 emissions from new lorries by 15% in 2025
- lower CO2 emissions from new lorries by at least 30 % in 2030
In total, the legislation is expected to reduce total emissions by some 54 million tonnes of CO2 in the period 2020 to 2030 which is equivalent to the total annual emissions of Sweden. The legislative initiative is part of the Commission’s third mobility package and complements policy measures such as the Certification Regulation, Monitoring and Reporting Regulation, EU type-approval system, Eurovignette Directive, Fuel Quality Directive, Clean Vehicles Directive, Directive on maximum authorised weights and dimensions and Directive on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure.
The first launch includes large lorries, which account for 65% to 70% of all CO2 emissions from heavy-duty vehicles. In 2022 it will include other vehicle types such as smaller lorries, buses, coaches and trailers.
The proposal also introduces an incentive scheme for the uptake of zero- and low-emission vehicles. Today, about 98% of the EU-based lorries rely on diesel meanwhile almost all manufacturers have announced plans for zero emission vehicles. The Commission proposes a support to these technologies through an incentive system based on super credits.
The effects of manufacturers´ measures will be evaluated through the Vehicle Energy Consumption Calculation Tool (VECTO), in application of the certification Regulation. Manufacturers will have to determine the CO2 emissions and fuel consumption of new lorries above 7.5 tonnes.