Emission performance standards for new light commercial vehicles

The presidency briefed the Council on progress with the draft regulation setting CO2 emissions standards for light commercial vehicles.

In general, delegations welcomed the proposal to set CO2 emission performance standards for new light commercial vehicles to complement the passenger cars Regulation and to contribute, by year 2020, to the 5% of the total EU reduction effort for activities falling outside the Emissions Trading Scheme.

Long-term target: almost all delegations recognised the importance of long term targets for the automobile industry. However, Member States have different views on the way this long term target should be integrated in legislation: some would like to inscribe the objective of 135 g CO2/km in 2020 already in the text as proposed by the Commission, others consider this value to be too ambitious and not attainable in 2020, another group would like to determine this value only after the review. A couple of Member States would like to review the long term target only downwards and one delegation proposed to express this value in a percentage and not in grams.

Scope: some delegations have serious doubts about the possible inclusion of the vehicles of categories N2 and M2, while others consider more appropriate to thoroughly study this possibility.

Transitional period: some delegations asked for a longer transitional period for the entry into force of the regulation (one more year), others on the contrary would prefer to have a shorter period or no phase-in at all. One delegation asked for a stricter short term target (less than 175 g CO2/km) and another one proposed that this target should be attained already in 2012.

Flexibility mechanism: on the flexibility mechanisms offered by the proposed legislation, some delegations are supportive of the provisions on eco-innovation and super-credits and others consider that they

are over generous and not necessary for light-commercial vehicles. One delegation would like to see in the text incentives to vehicles running on biofuels, similar to those given in Article 6 by the Regulation 443/2009.

Utility parameter: a couple of delegations suggested that transport capacity should be taken into account in the targets to avoid that a significant decrease in the carrying capacity of vans results in the use of more vehicles or heavier vehicles for the same transport performance.

Multistage vehicles: with regards to the inclusion of the multistage vehicles into the scope of the regulation, it seems that almost all delegations are in favour, nevertheless there are some key points that have to be solved, i.e., which is the best temporary solution until the development of the final method, whom is responsible for the emission of the completed vehicle, and how to define the most representative final value of CO2 for these vehicles (taking into account the need to modify the framework type-approval Directive).

Penalties: the level of penalties was considered excessively high by some Member States that would prefer to align the excess emissions premium with the regulation on CO2 emissions from passenger cars. Some Member States are in favour of the Commission's proposal and others have underlined the importance of an effective system that strikes an appropriate balance between a deterrent effect against non-compliance and competitiveness, based on the marginal CO2 abatement costs through vehicle technology for light-commercial vehicles.