The EU's Sustainable and Smart Mobility Package recently published by the European Commission is too ambitious, argues ACEA. Managing director Eric-Mark Huitema warns that the target of 30 million zero-emission vehicles on European roads by 2030 is far from reality.
For example, ACEA's own research shows that 243 million passenger vehicles were driving on EU roads in 2019. The share of emission-free vehicles is only 0.25% at 615,000 units. These include both electric and fuel cell vehicles. "To meet the Commission's target, the number of zero-emission vehicles in circulation needs to increase fifty-fold in just 10 years," Huitema said.
The right conditions are not available
"Despite industry investment in such vehicles and their growing market share, the right conditions are not available to make such a big leap." For instance, Huitema points out that wide availability of loading and refuelling infrastructure is crucial, both for passenger vehicles and freight traffic. The European Commission also recognises this.
"The European Commission should align its level of ambition for rolling out charging infrastructure in the EU with its ambition to reduce CO2 emissions from vehicles. It is simple: the higher climate targets become, the higher the targets for charging points and filling stations should be. Unfortunately, at the European level we see a mismatch between these two elements," warns the ACEA chief executive.
Number of charging stations must increase fifteenfold
For instance, the European Commission aims to have three million public charging points available in the EU by 2030. ACEA points out that this was less than 200,000 last year. This number must therefore increase fifteenfold in 11 years. ACEA members are therefore calling on the EU to encourage national governments to invest more in charging and refuelling infrastructure, as part of a review of the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Directive (AFID).
"Experience shows that a voluntary approach to these infrastructure targets does not work," says Huitema. "While some EU countries are very active, others have done little or nothing. The AFID review should include binding infrastructure targets for member states."
Other instruments needed too
Besides infrastructure, other tools are needed to encourage consumers to switch to emission-free mobility. These include more aggressive carbon pricing, the continuation of vehicle renewal programmes and supporting measures to retrain workers to support the transformation of the sector.
The average car in Europe is currently almost 11 years old. ACEA points out that making vehicles more sustainable results in new cars becoming more expensive for many Europeans. This while the economic impact due to COVID-19 means they currently have less to spend. ACEA warns that this could cause the average age of vehicles to rise and thus slow down the renewal of the European car fleet.
Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
