Low Emission Car Measures Under the EU’s CO2 Regulations for Passenger Cars

zoom

Passenger cars and vans together account for more than half of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the transport sector in Europe. While GHG emissions from other sectors are generally falling, those from transport have increased by 23% since 1990. In response, the European Union has implemented regulations to reduce CO2 emissions from cars and vans.

This report from Ricardo-AEA, their fourth in a series commissioned by Greenpeace and Transport and Environment, explores the impacts of different systems that are supposed to incentivise more rapid uptake of ULEVs, according to their proponents, to better understand their potential impacts in a range of areas. In particular three main areas that have been explored as part of this study:

1) Analysis of the impacts (on actual CO2 emissions achieved and additional manufacturing costs) of the following supercredit design options, depending on take-up of ULEVs:

• a. Qualifying thresholds used to define ULEVs (in gCO2/km).
• b. Caps in the numbers of qualifying vehicles.
• c. Annual or cumulative credits.
• d. The multipliers applied for supercredits.
• e. Different uptake scenarios for ULEVs in 2020.

2) Analysis of the impacts (on actual CO2 emissions achieved and additional manufacturing costs) of the following flexible mandate design options, depending on take-up of ULEVs:

• a. Qualifying thresholds used to define an ULEV (in gCO2/km).
• b. Central, lower and upper thresholds/targets for % sales of ULEV.

3) Analysis of the wider EU-wide impacts of the different supercredit or flexible mandate options in comparison with those for the Commission’s proposal (EC 2012, EC 2012a, EC 2012b) in terms of estimations of:

• a. Average new car gCO2/km in 2020.
• b. Total car fleet CO2 emissions in 2020 and 2030.
• c. Typical fuel costs over the lifetime of the vehicle produced in 2020 and 2030, and average annual fuel costs for the whole EU car fleet in 2020 and 2030.
• d. The level and cost of oil imports in 2020 and 2030.