European climate group says EU needs much tougher CO2 targets for vans, Auto News, ET Auto

The European Union must significantly tighten low CO2 targets for commercial vans in order to boost the switch to electric models and completely eliminate sales of fossil fuels by 2035, the European campaign group Transport and Environment said on Monday. (YOU).

T&E said an analysis of van sales in 2020 showed no change in CO2 emissions from 2017 and found that the EU’s CO2 targets are so low that most manufacturers can achieve them without selling a single zero emission van.

“The standards that came into effect in early 2020 were supposed to make vans cleaner, but truck makers hardly had to do anything to meet them,” T&E freight manager James Nix said in a statement. . “With pathetic CO2 targets, the e-commerce boom is becoming a nightmare for our planet.”

EU sales of electric and plug-in hybrid passenger cars nearly tripled to over 1 million vehicles last year, or more than 10% of overall sales, thanks to strict CO2 targets and government subsidies .

But sales of electric vans have stagnated at around 2% of the market.

T&E said the EU should advance its current target of 31% CO2 reduction by 2027 from 2030 and aim for a much more ambitious target of at least 60% reduction by 2030.

The group said the EU should set a target to reduce CO2 emissions by 100% by 2035, effectively banning combustion-engine vans.

T&E said the EU should prevent van manufacturers from building plug-in hybrid vans (PHEVs). Groups like T&E are pushing for PHEV passenger car models to be phased out over the next few years, arguing that owners are not charging them properly and relying too much on the fossil fuel engine.

Few automakers have developed commercial PHEV vans, but Ford Motor Co said in March that the next iteration of its Transit van will include a plug-in hybrid version.