The European Parliament, Council and European Commission have reached agreement on a further reduction in CO2 emissions from cars.
The agreement will reduce average CO2 emissions from new cars to 95g/km in 2020, as proposed by the Commission. This represents a 40% reduction from the mandatory 2015 target of 130g/km. The target is an average for each manufacturer's new car fleet; some models will emit less than the average and some will emit more. The Commission is required to propose by end-2015 a further emissions reduction target to take effect in 2025. This target will have to be in line with the Union’s long-term climate goals.
The Regulation will give manufacturers additional incentives to produce cars with emissions of 50g CO2/km or less (in practice these would be electric or plug-in hybrid cars). Each low-emitting car will be counted as 2 vehicles in 2020, 1.67 in 2021, 1.33 in 2022 and then as one vehicle from 2023 onwards. These 'super credits' will help manufacturers further reduce the average emissions of their new car fleet. However, to prevent the scheme from undermining the environmental integrity of the legislation, there will be a 2.5 g/km cap per manufacturer on the contribution that super credits can make to their target in any year.
To minimise the administrative burden, manufacturers of less than 1 000 cars per year registered in the EU will not have to meet any emissions target. Council and Parliament agreed that more realistic test procedures to inter alia measure fuel consumption and CO2 emissions from cars and vans will enter into force at the earliest opportunity.