Auto industry reacts to deal on CO2 targets for cars and vans

ACEA expresses serious concerns about the highly challenging CO2 targets that auto manufacturers will have to meet by 2030. Delivering a 37.5% CO2 reduction from cars and 31% from vans might sound plausible, but is totally unrealistic based on where we stand today. Industry deplores that these 2030 targets are driven purely by political motives, without taking technological and socio-economic realities into account.

“ACEA’s members are of course committed to further reducing CO2 emissions from their vehicles, but these targets will be extremely demanding on Europe’s auto industry,” stated ACEA Secretary General, Erik Jonnaert. “Indeed, they will require a much stronger market uptake of electric and other alternatively-powered vehicles than is currently proving possible.”

Jonnaert: “All our member companies will continue to invest in their portfolios of alternatively-powered cars and vans, but there are still several obstacles putting the brakes on widespread consumer acceptance, such as affordability and the lack of a sufficiently dense network of recharging and refuelling infrastructure.”

ACEA calls on the 28 member states and the European Commission to ensure that all the enabling conditions are in place for these aggressive CO2 reduction levels, notably the much-needed investments in infrastructure.

Undeniably, these extremely ambitious CO2 targets will have a seismic impact on jobs across the entire automotive value chain, which employs some 13.3 million Europeans. In order to mitigate the negative impact of these structural changes, policy makers need to act swiftly by presenting concrete plans to manage this employment and skills transition in a proper, socially-acceptable way.

Today’s deal still needs to be approved by the Council and voted in the plenary of the European Parliament.