Briefing

Car CO2 review: Europe’s chance to win the e-mobility race

January 26, 2021

The European Commission is set to revise the car CO2 regulation in June. T&E sets out its position on how and why it needs to be strengthened so that Europe can take the lead on electric vehicles.

Download the position paper

The growing EV market masks many regulatory flaws and failures to cut emissions, such as the growing CO₂ emissions from new cars prior to 2020 and the push by some carmakers towards suboptimal plug-in hybrid technology. The biggest risk is that the EV momentum could stagnate between 2022-2029 unless the current post-2020 standards are strengthened.

The 2021 review is therefore necessary and timely.

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Children make their way to school surrounded by SUVs in London, England.

This photograph is part of a new collection of images highlighting the impact of 'carspreading' on the school run taken by photographer Crispin Huges for Clean Cities.

Carspreading is taking over our cities. Cars are getting bigger — about 1cm wider every two years. The thing is, our streets aren’t. More than half of new cars in Europe are too wide for urban parking spaces, leaving our cities crowded and congested. And carspreading is damaging our planet too - petrol and diesel SUVs burn around 20% more fuel, and electric SUVs require more resources and critical battery minerals.

Clean Cities is Europe’s largest network of organisations dedicated to active, shared and electric urban mobility.

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