2023-02-14 08:00:00
While the EU Parliament decided, as expected, to ban combustion engines for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles from 2035, the European Commission has presented a draft law on fleet regulation for heavy commercial vehicles. The Association of the Automotive Industry considers this to be highly ambitious in view of the insufficient charging and hydrogen infrastructure. “The EU is significantly tightening the CO2 limits without adopting the necessary accompanying measures and thus ensuring that alternative drives can actually be ramped up,” complains Association President Hildegard Müller.
The potential for avoiding CO2 emissions through emission-free heavy goods traffic is great – heavy trucks and buses currently emit around a third of the CO2 emissions in road traffic. According to the VDA, there are 8.1 million heavy trucks and buses in Europe. By 2030 it is expected to be almost ten million. The proposal from Brussels provides for a 90 percent reduction in the fleet limit for 2040 compared to 2019. As a milestone, it should already be 45 percent in 2030 and then 65 percent in 2035.
To do this, however, the corresponding infrastructure must also be created. “It is currently not even remotely available,” emphasizes Müller, who supports the goals in principle. But as long as it is not clear when there is a sufficient, publicly accessible charging and refueling network for the heavy vehicle classes in long-distance transport, “the desired CO2 reduction targets and combustion engine phase-out dates for heavy commercial vehicles are purely symbolic”. And for fleet operators, stronger incentives to switch would have to be created. It’s not up to the manufacturers. These worked to meet the need for battery-electric or hydrogen-powered trucks and buses.
Associations such as the e-Fuel Alliance miss the consideration of climate-neutral fuels in the EU considerations. The supplier Mahle also regrets this, but welcomes the vote for green hydrogen. (awm)
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