European manufacturers advocate introduction of ambitious but realistic targets for truck emissions
Portugal
The ACEA (European Automobile Manufacturers Association) has come to welcome the introduction of CO2 emission standards for heavy vehicles, advocating an ambitious but at the same time realistic approach.
Targets that reflect the diversity of the market
"The lorry market is complex and lorries are usually custom-made for specific customer requests or tailor-made for a specific mission," said ACEA Chairman for Commercial Vehicles and CEO MAN Joachim Drees. "As this is the first time CO2 targets for heavy-duty vehicles have been set, it is extremely important that they are properly designed and reflect the diversity of the lorry market." Recall that from 2019 all European heavy-duty vehicle manufacturers will have to use the same calculation tool (VECTO) to declare and report the CO2 emissions of a wide variety of trucks. VECTO will allow the use of a standardized and certified method to measure CO2 emissions and fuel efficiency of trucks and trailers.
This tool will establish future CO2 standards for lorries by means of statistically solid data, with the first reference values ??available in 2019. With this in mind, ACEA members believe that a realistic level of ambition would be a 16% reduction of CO2 between 2019 and 2030, with an intermediate target of 7% in 2025.
"Certification of CO2 trucks will begin in January 2019 - these data will form a reliable basis for future standards. But that also means a very challenging short lead time, especially considering that the development of heavy-duty truck products to be sold in 2025 is already underway now. It is also important to keep in mind that the main alternative powertrain technologies are not yet considered by VECTO, "said Joachim Drees. ACEA further warns that 'any future CO2 standards for heavy-duty vehicles should be vehicle-wide', arguing that the setting of targets for specific components of vehicles 'will not lead to economic solutions' and may even have a negative impact on the net emission reduction because it does not adequately reflect the use of the components and their operation in the real world.
