Auto industry reacts to European Commission’s decarbonisation strategy

“The automobile industry is fully committed to continue reducing CO2 emissions across all business segments, from passenger cars to trucks,” stated ACEA Secretary General, Erik Jonnaert. However, as this strategy puts all the emphasis on road transport, ACEA calls for a more balanced approach, addressing all modes of transport – including air, maritime and rail.

Technology neutrality is key to supporting innovation and thus greater fuel-efficiency, so ACEA welcomes the fact that this principle is enshrined in today’s communication. “All vehicle manufacturers will continue investing in both internal combustion engines as well as the full range of alternative powertrains that meet the demands of both private and business customers,” stated Jonnaert. “As the Communication rightly points out however, a wider roll-out of infrastructure for alternative fuel vehicles is needed to enable a stronger market uptake of zero- or low-emissions vehicles by 2030.”

Although the strategy discusses digital mobility, pricing and energy sources, ACEA notes that most of the binding measures proposed relate only to new vehicle technology, with insufficient focus on the other important factors that influence emissions during the use of the vehicle, such as fuels, faster fleet renewal, improving infrastructure, altering driver behavior, and leveraging the potential of connected and automated vehicles. Jonnaert: “Focusing on new vehicle technology alone will have limited environmental benefits. A more effective approach would seek to address the full fleet and look at how these vehicles are used.”

Depending on their mission, most trucks are custom-built on an individual basis, often in a multi-stage process, in order to meet specific requirements. CO2 reduction policy for heavy-duty vehicles should therefore not follow the same approach as that for passenger cars, ACEA cautions.

The industry is working closely with the European Commission on a computer simulation tool (VECTO), which will model CO2 emissions from a wide variety of complete truck and trailer configurations. By 2018, VECTO will enable manufacturers to provide certified CO2 values to their customers for each and every truck produced. The automobile industry fully supports the upcoming Commission proposal on monitoring and reporting, based on VECTO. It is important that policy makers give time to analyse the impact of this data collection and certification procedure –  which is a necessary tool to tackle the knowledge gap regarding truck emissions – before considering setting CO2 limits.

Jonnaert concluded: “ACEA is now looking forward to contribute constructively to the elaboration of specific proposals, in order to identify the most effective and cost-efficient ways to further reduce CO2 emissions from transport.”