In an extraordinary appearance on one stage together, the CEOs of Europe’s seven leading truck and bus manufacturers warned at the IAA Transportation in Hanover, that Europe’s shift to zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles is still being held back by an alarming delay in the conditions that are needed to drive market uptake.
They called on European and national policymakers to urgently close the gap as well as adjust the 2030 CO2 compliance timeline.
European truck and bus manufacturers remain fully committed to the EU’s ambitious CO2 reduction targets. After years of investments, a full range of competitive zero-emission vehicles for all major use cases is available today. But the conditions that transport operators need to adopt these vehicles at scale and operate them competitively are now at least three years behind and are still not developing fast enough. Persistently low zero-emission market shares and a highly uneven uptake across Europe are clear indications.
Just 2.4% of new heavy-duty truck registrations in Europe are zero-emission today. However, in major truck markets such as Poland, Spain and Italy, the share is still well below 1%. Even in Germany and France, Europe’s two largest truck markets, it stands at only 4.3% and 2.4%. With only 45 months remaining until the 2030 CO2 targets apply, the gap between current market uptake and the pace of transition towards 2030 remains substantial. Closing this gap requires zero-emission trucks to make economic sense for transport operators and that depends on charging and grid access, energy costs, CO2-based road tolls and a coherent supportive policy framework. Most of the conditions that determine whether operators can make the switch must be created by actors other than manufacturers.
Karin Rådström, President and CEO of Daimler Truck and Chair of ACEA’s Commercial Vehicle Board: “We are fully committed to sustainable transport – the investments have been made, and a wide range of CO2-free vehicles is available today. But making them commercially viable at scale also depends on the wider ecosystem that is clearly delayed and not yet developing fast enough. This means two things: doubling down on the enabling conditions fast, and for the EU to delay the 2030 compliance timeline by three years, to prevent penalties for manufacturers.”
Responsibility and control are clearly misaligned. Manufacturers face crippling financial penalties if their new fleets fail to meet the CO2 targets. Their compliance, however, depends on decisions made across the wider value chain.
If the market uptake remains too low for manufacturers to meet their 2030 obligations, imposing penalties for non-compliance would not put more zero-emission trucks on the road. It would instead divert billions of euros from the technologies and production capacity needed for the transition, while weakening European manufacturers just as global competition intensifies.
The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) represents the 17 major Europe-based car, van, truck and bus makers: BMW Group, DAF Trucks, Daimler Truck, Ferrari, Ford of Europe, Honda Motor Europe, Hyundai Motor Europe, Iveco Group, JLR, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Renault Group, Stellantis, Toyota Motor Europe, TRATON GROUP, Volkswagen Group, and Volvo Group.
Visit www.acea.auto for more information about ACEA
