Yesterday 17th of December, the MEPs and the Austrian Presidency of the Council reached a provisional agreement on plans to reduce CO₂ emissions for new cars which will have to decrease by 37.5% by 2030 and 31% for vans.

MEPs and Council agreed on a higher target than the initially proposed by the European Commission (30%) for the reduction of EU fleet-wide emissions for new cars by 2030. The target will be calculated based on a tailpipe 2021 emission levels, with an intermediary step of 15% CO₂ cut for both cars and vans to be reached by 2025.

Different solutions will be required to enable a smoother evolution of the passenger cars mobility, and CNG is well placed to be an important player contributing to the intermediate reduction target in 2025. Natural gas vehicles can in fact ensure a CO₂ savings by 23% compared to gasoline, making it ideal also for further integrations with hybrid solutions.

NGVA Europe welcomes the provision, calling for the Commission to evaluate a common methodology to calculate the full life-cycle emissions from cars followed by legislation, if found appropriate. This is the recognition of the need to move from a pure tailpipe emissions approach and put all technologies on a fair playing field. The reduction efforts asked from the industry is challenging and all CO₂ emissions savings should be considered and fully accounted for when assessing the environmental impact from the vehicles sector.

-

You can download this press release here.