Impact Assessment on Heavy Duty Vehicles (HDV) CO
2
emission standards
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Impact Assessment on Heavy Duty Vehicles (HDV) CO
2
emission
standards
The July 2016 Commission's strategy for low-emission mobility recalls that mobility is an essential
component of the shift to the low-carbon, circular economy needed for Europe to stay competitive and be
able to cater to the mobility needs of people and goods. The strategy set the ambition for the transport
sector to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at least by 60% compared to 1990 by mid-century and be
firmly on the path towards zero. Action on vehicles' fuel/CO
2
emission performance is one of the key
levers to tilt the transport sector in the right direction.
The 2030 climate and energy framework agreed by EU Heads of State and Government in October 2014
requires a 30% reduction in non-ETS sector GHG emissions by 2030 compared to 2005. Road transport
represents 1/3 of the non-ETS GHG emissions and heavy-duty vehicles contribute to about 1/4 of road
transport emissions and some 5% of total EU GHG emissions.
The May 2014 Strategy Communication on reducing HDV fuel consumption and CO
2
emissions (
COM
/2014/0285
) emphasises the importance of closing the knowledge gap regarding the CO
2
emissions of
lories and buses with a view to improving market transparency.
The July 2016 Strategy for low-emission mobility furthermore announced that there is a need to curb CO
2
emissions from HDVs.
On 11 May 2017 the Technical Committee for Motor Vehicles has approved under type approval legislation
a certification procedure for the determination of the CO
2
emissions and fuel consumption of new HDVs,
using the results from
VECTO simulations
, which has been developed by the European Commission
since 2010. HDV manufacturers will have to run VECTO at the end of the production line and declare
such information at the time of registration as of 2019.
On 31 May 2017, as part of the Europe on the Move set of initiatives, the Commission adopted a proposal
for the monitoring and reporting of such HDV CO
2
emissions and fuel consumption. The data collected
will be made publicly available by the European Environment Agency, starting in 2020 to cover data
monitored in 2019.
This
inception impact assessment
will look into different options for setting the first EU measures to
actively curb CO
2
emissions from HDVs, including CO
2
emission standards.
It should be noted that EU manufacturers account for some 40% of global production. Furthermore, other
parts of the world, such as the United States, China, Japan and Canada, have already introduced HDV
fuel economy standards, and some European manufacturers participate in these schemes.
For the purposes of the present consultation the term HDV should be understood as including (For the
definition of vehicle categories see
Directive (EC) 2007/46
, Annex II, part A):
1