The European Association of Manufacturers of ACEA vehicles, has stressed that all the efforts of the automotive industry in Europe “are oriented towards zero-emission mobility”, while it has “solid proposals and solutions to make this transformation a reality”, but considers that the policies and regulations made by the European Union and its members must align and support the general objective of achieving “zero emission transport in Europe and manufactured in Europe”.
New European regulations on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions risk “slowing down” the path towards decarbonisation of the European automotive sector, according to the director general of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), Sigrid de Vries.
De Vries has thus referred to the agreement reached between the European Commission, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament that prohibits the commercialization of internal combustion vehicles in the European Union (EU) from 2035 and the Euro 7 regulations, that restricts pollutant emission standards for cars and vans.
In this sense, De Vries warns that the tripartite agreement “requires massive investments in electrification”, while the Euro 7 proposal represents “heavy spending on the combustion engine”.
“Those policies don’t match, they send confusing signals and ultimately risk slowing down our race to decarbonization. We urgently need a holistic and simplified approach to the massive transition to zero emissions that our industry is carrying out”, stressed the director general of ACEA.
On the ban on the marketing of internal combustion vehicles in the EU from 2035, De Vries has considered that it is an “unprecedented decision” which implies that the EU will be the “first and only” region in the world in which cars will be fully electric.
Regarding this, he has opined that the European industry is “up to” the challenge, given that in the third quarter of the year the share of 100% electric cars “continued to grow” and represents almost 12% of the total registrations of passenger cars in the European Union.
In addition, it has had an impact on the fact that the forecasts suggest that the European market will take the lead to other regions of the world in 2030, since it is estimated that the share of fully electric vehicles will exceed 70%, ahead of the percentages in countries such as China or the United States.
However, he has qualified that for this to happen and to achieve the goal of zero emissions by 2035 it is “imperative” that a series of essential conditions be established.
Thus, it has focused on the fact that all the parties involved must “work together” to guarantee access to the raw materials necessary for electric mobility, on the need to make electric cars affordable for the mass market and has also stressed that the “negative consequences” for employment must be mitigated and the establishment of a “fast and simple” recharging network in Europe.
“To keep track of developments in all these areas, ACEA calls for a robust and meaningful mid-term review of CO2 regulation. This will be essential to assess whether enough progress has been made,” De Vries stressed.
counterproductive measures
Regarding the Euro 7 proposal, from ACEA they have considered that it is a “counterproductive” measurebecause it “risks slowing down” the transition to emission-free transport.
“Extraordinarily stringent testing and boundary conditions do little to improve air quality in everyday driving. However, they considerably increase the cost of vehicles, diverting valuable resources, both engineering and financial, from the goal of zero emissions“, has valued the general director of ACEA.
In this context, he has deepened that some of the proposed limit values “They border on what is technically feasible”, while also lamenting that the proposed implementation dates (July 2025 for cars and vans and July 2027 for heavy-duty vehicles) “are not realistic” due to the “large number” of models and vehicle variants that must be developed, tested and homologated by then.
“Heavy vans get especially rough because of the date and content. The Euro 7 proposal for trucks completely ignores the rapidly accelerating shift towards zero-emission vehicles and also the effect of future CO2 targets for heavy-duty vehicles,” de Vries warned.
Along these lines, he has pointed out that there are studies which point out that a renewal of the fleet with Euro 6 (the one that replaces Euro 7) in combination with the electrification of new vehicles would generate an 80% reduction in nitrous oxide (NOx) emissions from road transport by 2035 compared to with 2020.
“Over the same period, the most stringent Euro 7 scenarios would reduce NOx emissions from road transport by less than an additional 5% for cars and vans compared to Euro 6 levels, and by about 2% for trucks,” has asserted.
ACEA has stressed that all automotive industry efforts in Europe “are oriented towards zero emission mobility”, while having “solid proposals and solutions to make this transformation a reality”, but considers that policies and regulations must be aligned and support the general objective of achieving “zero transport emissions in Europe and manufactured in Europe.