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Brussels-based environmental NGO umbrella group Transport &
Environment (T&E) is calling for tougher EU CO2 targets for
makers of vans amid growing demand for their use in e-commerce
deliveries.
Vans are responsible for 2.5% of total EU CO2 emissions, a
fraction of the amount attributed to car emissions (12%).
But between 2013 and 2019, there was a 10% increase in CO2
emissions from vans registered in the EU and the UK. Emissions from
vans in Germany increased by 110% between 1990 and 2019, while car
emissions decreased 15% in the same period, T&E said. Sales of
EU-registered vans rose more than twice as fast as sales of cars
and trucks, around 57%, between 2012 and 2019, it added.
Road use policies often exempt vans but not trucks, such as with
toll charges, spurring van purchases. The allure held steady during
the pandemic when lockdowns encouraged more online shopping
deliveries using vans.
In January 2020, the EU took aim at certain emissions cuts
needed under its Paris Agreement targets by replacing two existing
regulations for car and van manufacturers.
It hoped to meet emissions goals in part through Regulation (EU) 2019/631, which
requires setting performance standards and specific emissions
targets annually for each vehicle manufacturer, based on EU
fleet-wide CO2 emissions reductions targets. This regulation is up
for review in summer 2021.
T&E's May study criticized "weak" CO2
targets in the regulation it says won't motivate automakers to sell
more electric vans until 2029.
This is because the regulation does not set the bar high enough,
it argues. Specifically, the EU currently targets a 2030 date for a
31% CO2 reduction from a 2021 baseline that van manufacturers must
do their part to meet.
To comply, they only need to make vans that efficiently use fuel
rather than electricity, according to a 2016 study by the International
Council on Clean Transportation.
T&E also described how, under the same regulation, the EU
may award credit for potential CO2 emissions savings from
technology under development to encourage low-emissions technology
research, rather than for manufacturing actual low-emissions cars
in real time. These "eco-innovation credits" effectively expand the
emissions allowed under the official EU fleet-wide target, it
said.
The sale of high-emissions vans will also provide a route to
market for diesel technologies that are being phased out in the EU
passenger car segment, according to the report.
Both electric van supplies and electric van sales are expected
to remain static from 2021-2029, it found. "We face a dangerous
cocktail of surging van sales and high van emissions. Standards
that entered into force at the beginning of 2020 were supposed to
make vans cleaner, but van makers have had to do almost nothing to
reach them. In the case of Volkswagen, their emissions are even
going up. With pathetic CO2 targets, the boom in e-commerce is
becoming a nightmare for our planet," said James Nix, freight
manager at T&E.
Source: T&E
T&E's study suggested the EU's current "benchmarks" related
to zero- and low-emission vehicles be swapped for a 50% by 2030
target for sales of zero-emission vehicles—those mainly powered
by electricity and hydrogen. This, it said, could only be achieved
if the EU tightens its CO2 target for vans from a 31% to a 60%
reduction by 2030.
As for vans, it recommended a phaseout of sales of vans with
internal combustion engines by 2035.
Automakers have agreed to an upward revision of the target under
the right circumstances. The European Automobile Manufacturers'
Association (ACEA) has asked for more ambitious CO2 targets for
vans and cars to be directly linked to the number of existing
electric car charging points and hydrogen stations.
The trade group said the auto industry had expanded electric
vehicle use in Europe, but the charging market lagged behind. "This
trend can only be sustained if governments start making matching
investments in infrastructure. That is why any new 2030 CO2 targets
for cars must be conditional on a corresponding infrastructure
ramp-up," said ACEA President and BMW CEO Oliver Zipse.
Source: T&E
Looking at the production of vans in 2030, IHS Markit forecasts
43% of battery-electric vans in Europe will be produced in France
by manufacturers like PSA and Renault.
France will also produce three-quarters of fuel-cell electric
vans, while Germany, Spain, and Poland are likely to produce
plug-in hybrid electric vans. However, EU regulations should not
support their sale as much as the sale of electric vans, according
to T&E.
Posted 18 May 2021 by Cristina Brooks, Senior Journalist, Climate and Sustainability
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