EU car makers further away from their 2021 CO₂ targets

5 April 2019

All but three car manufacturers met their specific CO₂ emission targets in 2017, based on current European vehicle test rules. Nevertheless, average CO₂ emissions from new cars sold in the European Union in 2017 rose by 0.4 g/km from 2016, according to a report published by the European Environment Agency (EEA) that documents the latest official data submitted by EU Member States and vehicle manufacturers. This increase brings car manufacturers further away from their 2021 targets.

According to the final data in the EEA report Monitoring CO₂ emissions from new passenger cars and new vans in 2017, average CO₂ emissions of a new car sold in the EU rose by 0.4 g/km in 2017 to 118.5 g/km, from 118.1 g CO₂/km in 2016. Although this level remains below the current target level of 130 g CO₂/km, it is well above the target of 95 g CO₂/km to be achieved by 2021.

This suggests that it may be challenging for manufacturers to reach their 2021 targets. The troubling trend of increasing emissions—driven in part by the declining sales of diesel cars which are being replaced by petrol vehicles—continued in 2018, according to recent unofficial CO₂ data by Jato Dynamics.

Average CO₂ emissions of new light commercial vehicles (vans) dropped by 7.5 g/km from 2016. The average new van registered in 2017 emitted 156.1 g CO₂/km. This reduction brings the EU average emissions 11% below the 2017 target of 175 g/km and 6% above the 2020 target.

While all van manufacturers respected their specific emission targets in 2017, three car manufacturers (Automobili Lamborghini, Mazda Motor Corporation and Société des Automobiles Alpine), representing together 1.4% of all new car sales in 2017, exceeded their specific emission targets for 2017. Other key findings of the report are:

• For the first year since 2009, petrol cars constituted the majority of new registrations in 2017 (almost 53%). The proportion of electric vehicles (plug-in hybrid and battery electric cars) increased from 1.0% in 2016 to 1.5% in 2017.
• New diesel cars, which were on average around 300 kg heavier than new petrol cars, emitted on average 117.9 g CO₂/km, which is 3.7 g/km less than the average petrol car. The average fuel efficiency of new petrol cars has been constant in 2016 and 2017, whereas the fuel efficiency of new diesel cars has worsened compared to 2016 (116.8 g CO₂/km).
• If similar petrol and diesel segments are compared, new conventional petrol cars emitted 10-40% more than new conventional diesel cars. For diesel cars, only the large-sized segment managed to achieve a small reduction (0.5 g CO₂/km) in 2017 compared with 2016. For conventional petrol cars, large-sized cars saw a significant reduction in CO₂ emissions of around 6 g/km, and medium/small-sized cars remained stable.
• Amongst the largest automakers, Toyota Motor Europe had the lowest average CO₂ emissions for new passenger cars registered in 2017 (with 103 g/km). Automobiles Peugeot and Automobiles Citroen followed with 105 g/km and 106 g/km, respectively. Automobile Dacia SA was the lowest-emitting vans manufacturer at 118 g/km.

In December 2018, EU lawmakers reached an agreement on fleet average emission targets from new cars for 2025 and 2030, which aim to reduce CO₂ emissions by 15% in 2025 and by 37.5% in 2030, compared with 2021 baseline levels. For light-commercial vehicles, the targets consist of reductions by 15% in 2025 and 31% in 2030, relative to 2021.

Source: European Environment Agency