Member States in the Council have adopted their position (‘general approach’) on the regulation for CO2 targets for cars and vans. Environment ministers decided to raise the target for cars for 2030 by 5 percentage points to 35%, raise the threshold of the mechanism to incentivise zero and low emission vehicles by 5 percentage points to 35% whilst better weighting low emission vehicles in the mechanism. 

“Both the European Parliament and the governments in the Council have now opted to increase the level of ambition. Automotive suppliers see the targets that have been proposed by the European Commission as challenging yet balanced. Going strongly beyond the Commission proposal carries risks to the industrial footprint of the automotive suppliers industry in Europe, putting high-value jobs in the balance”, says Sigrid de Vries, Secretary General of the association of the automotive suppliers industry (CLEPA). “Automotive suppliers advocate an ambitious transformation rather than negative disruption.”

“It will be crucial to not set the targets too high and provide the right boundary conditions through a positive incentive mechanism for low and zero emission vehicles. Specifically, a ‘malus’ as requested by the Parliament will have a negative effect. Better weighting of low emission vehicles, such as plug-in hybrids, is positive”, says de Vries.

“Only a technology neutral regulation will ensure that emissions will be reduced efficiently. However, there is strong pressure towards favouring battery-electric vehicles at the expense of other solutions, such as hybridisation and alternative fuels, which have a major potential to contribute to decarbonisation. Furthermore, it will be important to confirm that the step forward to well-to-wheel or life-cycle analysis will be done in future legislation.”

“Automotive suppliers fully support the goal of decarbonising mobility and produce a wealth of technologies to achieve this. It is a declared aim to remain globally competitive with a large variety of smart, safe and green mobility-related technologies, supporting the jobs of five million people in Europe today. Competitive regulation supporting both the environment as well as employment is a key to Europe’s success.”

Tripartite negotiations between Council, European Parliament and Commission are scheduled to begin today.

Note to the editor:

CLEPA, the European Association of Automotive Suppliers, represents over 3.000 companies supplying state-of-the-art components and innovative technology for safe, smart and sustainable mobility, investing over 20 billion euros yearly in research and development. Automotive suppliers in Europe employ nearly five million people across the continent.

For more information, please contact: 

CLEPA- Pilar Perez (p.perez@clepa.be)