EU truck targets too weak to incentivise transition to zero-emission vehicles
T&E's study on truckmakers' progress towards EU truck CO2 targets shows that most are already on track to overachieve the target set for 2025, without increasing their production of zero-emission vehicles.
Improvements in aerodynamics and fuel efficiency mean trucks can already achieve the EU’s 2025 CO2 reduction target while producing just a few zero-emission vehicles. If all of Europe’s trucks performed as well as the most efficient models on the market, it would reduce average truck CO2 emissions by 6% today. But efficiency gains alone will not get Europe’s trucking sector to net-zero and truckmakers are going to slowly on their own.
Most truckmakers have made voluntary commitments for electric sales which go beyond what the EU requires. According to their public announcements, these voluntary commitments would take the market to around 7% zero-emission vehicles in 2025 and 43% in 2030 – higher than the 5% needed in 2025 to meet existing targets. These voluntary announcements show that the EU can set a realistic – but more ambitious – target of at least 30% zero-emission trucks by 2028.
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A new T&E analysis looking at major truck markets in the EU