Europe's automaking lobby has cautioned that new EU legislation implements even more stringent CO2 emissions targets for its trucking and bus industry, but without the bloc committing to do more to stimulate zero-emissions heavy duty vehicle (HDV) demand.
The new law sets targets for truck manufacturers to reduce the percentage of non-ZEV trucks sold by 45pc between 2030 and 2034, subsequently moving to 65pc for the period of 2035-2039, and by 90pc as of 2040.
"While vehicle targets are part of the puzzle for decarbonising truck and bus transport, it is insufficient to only regulate the supply side without addressing demand roadblocks," says lobby group the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, or Acea.
Sign up for EV inFocus
EV inFocus: Hard news for the corporate e-mobility sector
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Acea says that the manufacturing of heavy duty ZEVs is "not the bottleneck" holding Europe back decarbonising its freight industry. Instead, current "carbon pricing and incentive schemes aimed at narrowing the total cost of ownership gap between traditional diesel vehicles and zero-emission counterparts fall short".
Acea calls for favourable "enabling conditions" to allow the uptake of ZEV trucks and buses, including addressing charging shortfalls.
"To put the scale of the challenges in context, there is almost no public charging infrastructure suitable for trucks and buses available today. Europe needs at least 50,000 publicly accessible chargers and at least 700 hydrogen refilling stations to achieve the CO2-reduction target of 45pc by 2030," Acea says.
A coalition of 38 freight and logistics companies signed an open letter to MEPs supporting the proposal, reflecting that the freight industry is not opposed to the aims of the legislation. But Acea is wary of some renewed challenges it poses for the industry.
"We are playing our part by investing in and ramping up production of battery-electric and hydrogen-powered models, but simply setting ambitious targets for manufacturers and hoping smooth implementation follows is not a strategy," Acea says.
Ciaran has written about finance, politics and culture. He is passionate about e-mobility and what it means for our way of life.
Ciaran has a Masters in Ancient Philosophy from Oxford University.
