The law, agreed with governments, will provide investment certainty for truckmakers to go zero emissions.
The European Parliament today approved a law that will require almost all new trucks sold in 2040 to be zero-emission. Green group Transport & Environment said the law — agreed in negotiations between MEPs and governments — will help European manufacturers to compete with foreign electric truckmakers and is estimated to reduce the annual CO2 emissions from heavy-duty vehicles by 62% by 2050 .
Manufacturers will have to cut the average emissions of new trucks by 45% in 2030, 65% in 2035 and 90% in 2040. From 2035, the targets will also apply to vocational vehicles such as garbage and construction trucks. Trailer manufacturers will also need to improve the emissions performance of truck trailers by 10% in 2030. By 2030, 90% of new buses will need to be zero-emission, reaching 100% by 2035.
Fedor Unterlohner concluded: “The law agreed is a compromise that gives one of Europe’s biggest polluters a path to go green. Long-term investment certainty has been given to manufacturers which are facing electric competition from foreign rivals. They must not be diverted into dead-end technologies for trucks, such as biofuels and e-fuels, that cannot compete on efficiency and cost.”