The European Commission wants the European Green Deal to set ambitious climate protection targets and make Europe the world’s first CO2-neutral continent. The project involves potentially tightening up the fleet limit values for passenger cars and commercial vehicles.
The European Green Deal represents one of the European Commission’s most important projects in 2020. In January, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen again presented the plan at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Under the Green Deal, the European Union is to set an example by forging ahead on climate issues and determining standards for sustainable growth in global value chains. This should make Europe climate neutral by 2050.
The package of measures includes extending the European emissions trading system to include new sectors. Furthermore, the impacts of transportation on air, water and noise are to be investigated as part of a zero pollution ambition. The European Commission has announced that under the Green Deal, the legislation on fleet-wide CO2 emission standards for passenger cars and vans will be reviewed by June 2021.
However, the current target values – the strictest anywhere in the world – already represent a major challenge for the automotive sector. They were passed at the end of 2017 and require a 37.5 percent reduction in CO2 output from passenger cars by 2030, and a 31 percent decrease for vans. A reduction of 30 percent was set for heavy-duty commercial vehicles.
Given the development and product cycles that last five to seven years for passenger cars and up to ten years for commercial vehicles, it is already difficult to satisfy the ambitious requirements. It is not possible to implement the stricter CO2 performance standards under the European Green Deal, because it will not be technically or economically feasible to optimize conventional technologies and alternative powertrains within the short time-frame.
Holistic view for reaching the targets together
Climate protection has top priority, and the automotive industry supports the ambitious Paris climate targets. The VDA therefore welcomes an ambitious EU climate action policy. A holistic view will be needed if we are to achieve the objective of a CO2 reduction in the mobility sector together. This should take into account not only new vehicle technology but also driving styles and mileages, the vehicle fleet and the CO2 impact of fuels and electricity. Promoting alternative fuels such as hydrogen and e-fuels in particular represents a major lever for reducing CO2 output from vehicles already on the roads. Just for comparison: an improvement of 1 gram in the existing fleet – say, by using a lower CO2 fuel – is as effective as an improvement of 20 grams in the new vehicle fleet.
The infrastructure also plays a key role. Investments in the charging infrastructure are necessary in particular for promoting and expanding electric mobility – to prevent it from being restricted to urban areas, and to ensure that it is available to everyone. However, for European companies to remain internationally competitive, the path taken must be economical, ecological and socially acceptable. The shift to climate-neutral mobility will only be successful if the best solutions become established through competition.
VDA – New car registrations: new record for electric share
Berlin, 03 November 2021
Semiconductor shortage: Passenger car market in October for the fourth month in succession below level of same month last year – domestic production and exports continue to decline sharply. 178,700 new passenger cars were registered in Germany in October. That is 35% less than in the same month last year. At the same time, this means a decrease compared to the respective month of the previous year for the fourth month in a row. 2.2 million new cars were registered in the first ten months. This is a decline of 5 percent below the previous year’s figure for this period.
New registrations of electric cars rose in October by 13 percent to 54,400 units. The share of electric cars in total new registrations was 30.4 percent. This clearly exceeded the previous high from September. New registrations of purely battery-electric vehicles (BEV) rose by 32 percent while those of plug-in hybrids (PHEV) fell by 5 percent.
New domestic orders fell slightly by 1 percent in October compared to the same month last year. However, there has been an increase of 3 percent since the beginning of the year. The international business significantly decreased in October: German manufacturers faced a decline in orders of 27 percent. Since January, however, 7 percent more orders have been received from abroad compared to the same period in the previous year.
Production in German automobile manufacturing plants fell again in October. A total of 237,000 cars were manufactured (-38 percent). In the first ten months, domestic production amounted to just under 2.6 million cars (-8 percent). Delivery bottlenecks for semiconductors have been again the determining obstacle to production in the past month. Exports also fell in October: 177,700 cars (39 percent) were sold abroad. In the year to date, almost 2.0 million cars (-6 percent) have been delivered to customers around the world.
| Oktober 2021 | Jan. – Oktober 2021 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personenkraftwagen *) | Anzahl | Veränderung 21/20 in % |
Anzahl | Veränderung 21/20 in % |
||
| Neuzulassungen | 178.700 | -35 | 2.196.300 | -5 | ||
| davon | ||||||
| dt. Marken inkl. Konzernmarken | 117.100 | -39 | 1.501.600 | -6 | ||
| ausl. Marken | 61.600 | -24 | 694.700 | -3 | ||
| Export | 177.700 | -39 | 1.951.300 | -6 | ||
| Produktion | 227.000 | -38 | 2.563.500 | -8 | ||
| *) z.T. vorläufig
Quelle: VDA/KBA |
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