EU Commission proposes compliance flexibility for CO2 standards
5 March 2025
The European Commission said it will propose a “focused amendment” to the CO2 emission regulation for cars and vans this month to provide more flexibility for manufacturers in meeting the standards over the period of 2025-2027. The announcement is part of the Industrial Action Plan for the European automotive sector.
The amendment, if adopted, would determine that compliance is assessed over the years of 2025, 2026, and 2027 combined to allow car manufacturers to compensate an exceedance of the target in one or two of these years by overachievements in the other year(s). This will contribute to safeguarding industry’s capacity to invest, keeping the overall ambition of the 2025 targets, the Commission said in the Action Plan.
Demand for battery electric vehicles has been weaker than anticipated, threatening manufacturers with substantial non-compliance penalties. Following a six- fold increase from 2019 to 2023, the sales of battery electric vehicles in the EU slightly declined by 5.6% between 2023 and 2024, with market shares down from 14.6% to 13.6%, as well as delays in the market launches of affordable electric vehicles models, the Action Plan noted.
The Commission also said it has started work on a legislative proposal to decarbonize corporate fleets, in order to accelerate the uptake of zero-emission vehicles in the corporate sector. In the heavy-duty sector, the Commission will adopt an amendment of the Eurovignette Directive to extend the deadline beyond 31 December 2025 to fully exempt zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles from road charges.
The Action Plan also promises new incentives, including funding under Horizon Europe, for next-generation batteries and autonomous driving technology.
In response to the Action Plan, the European automotive industry cautioned that manufacturers alone cannot make the transition happen at the pace required by EU law and more ambitious actions are needed to boost infrastructure, demand incentives, and measures to reduce manufacturing costs for cars, vans, trucks, and buses.
“The Action Plan identifies many key fields where immediate work is needed. The proposed flexibility to meet CO2 targets in the coming years is a welcome first step towards a more pragmatic approach to decarbonization dictated by market and geopolitical realities. It holds the promise of some breathing space for car and van makers, provided the much-needed demand and charging infrastructure measures now also actually kick-in,” stated Sigrid de Vries, Director General of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA).
“Nonetheless, despite outlining several promising measures to boost the rollout of infrastructure and uptake of zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles, this vehicle segment is still missing explicit commitment to launch the review of CO2 standards in 2025, including an urgent assessment of enabling conditions,” said de Vries.
Source: EU Commission