Proposed 2020 CO2 Emissions Targets Unrealistic, EU Auto Makers Say

BRUSSELS – The European automotive industry is denouncing proposed new carbon-dioxide emissions targets for 2020 recently announced by the European Commission, saying they are too ambitious to be realistic.

“These are tough targets, the toughest in the world,” says Ivan Hodac, secretary general of the ACEA auto makers group.

The proposed amendment to current rules requires new cars to emit an average 95 g/km CO2 by 2020. This represents a drop of 40.7 g/km from average emissions in 2011. An intermediate target already had been set at 130g/km until 2015.

That means, for example, that the new Peugeot 208’s 1.0L 3-cyl. gasoline engine rated at 99 g/km (56 mpg [4.2 L/100 km]) would fall short of the 2020 standard.

Van will have to cut emissions to 147 g/km in 2020 from 181.4 g/km in 2010, the latest van figure available. The current intermediate target is 175 g/km in 2017.

The new targets don’t come as a complete surprise; they already were envisioned in existing legislation, but still require implementation.

The ACEA says the proposed targets would place an extra strain on auto makers at a time when the industry outlook is pessimistic. “In 2012, (EU) new-car registrations are expected to decrease by about 7% compared to 2011, and sales are set to drop from 13.1 million to 12.2 million,” the group says in a statement. “This is a record low since 1995.”

Connie Hedegaard, EU climate action commissioner, dismisses the industry’s complaints. “We have done this before,” she says in a statement. “We did it some years ago, and at that time the manufacturers said, ‘It’s going to be very costly; it’s going to be very difficult.’ (But) they actually did deliver.”

Hedegaard expresses confidence that the proposed regulations will help auto makers stay “on the top of their toes and innovate,” something she says is needed to ensure the industry’s competitiveness.

In response, Hodac tells WardsAuto huge efforts by the industry and investments in research and development were needed to reduce CO2 emissions at the levels required by 2015.

He credits the industry’s performance that Hedegaard notes to market forces that were difficult to foresee. For example, during the height of the global financial crisis, consumers tended to buy smaller, less-costly cars that produced lower emissions.

Government scrappage schemes and other incentives such as taxation also brought about some artificial changes in the market, removing older cars and putting newer, cleaner vehicles on the road,” he says. But those incentives no longer are in place, even though many EU economies continue to struggle, and lowering average emissions will be harder to achieve this time around.

“It’s clear that the further one brings the targets down to marginal levels, the more difficult and expensive it is to meet these targets, so the industry is faced with a considerable challenge,” Hodac says.

Matthias Wissmann, president of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) agrees. He argues it would not be possible to reach the proposed 95g/km target without considerable additional costs, and calls for a lighter touch rather than heavy-handed CO2 limits.

“To keep the cost to industry and consumers within an economically acceptable level, the (proposed) regulation should be formulated to focus principally on intelligent incentives for innovations, instead of rigid limit values,” he says.

Wissmann is convinced the competitiveness of the European auto industry is at stake and that the “extraordinarily bureaucratic and fainthearted approach” of the EC puts Europe behind the U.S. and China, which he considers more innovation-friendly.

Calling the proposed 2020 emission targets the strictest in the world, “the requirements must preserve a balance between ecological responsibility and economic viability, and thus secure both value-added and jobs,” he adds.

However, many consumers and environmental groups here welcome the proposed legislation and are asking for targets to be set even lower after 2020.

To become law, the proposed regulations have to be approved by the European Parliament, which represents EU citizens, and the EU Council of Ministers, representing the governments of the 27 member states.

“Parliament and council now have the vital joint task of improving the draft legislation to ensure it is more ambitious to the benefit of both the environment and consumers,” says German Social Democrat Matthias Groote, chair of the parliament’s environment committee, which will propose the amendment to the legislation to the full European Parliament.