A number European Union (EU) politicians and four member states have called for much stricter automotive emissions regulations to be written into statute books in the next proposed revision due in 2025, According to a Reuters report the next round of cuts was agreed last year and will introduce fleet averages of 95g/km for passenger cars by 2021, a set of regulations that was agreed after only much negotiation and protests from German OEMs and the EU politicians representing them. At an earlier meeting involving various stakeholders, the Commission has committed itself to assessing the range of 68g/km to 78 g/km for 2025. A group of Green, centre-right and liberal members of the European Parliament called on the Commission in a letter dated 17 June to confirm it would publish 2025 targets next year. In addition the environment or transport ministers from Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden lent their support to publication in 2016 of "challenging" new targets for 2025.
Significance: It is likely that the OEMs will be braced for another tough settlement in terms of the next round of EU emissions regulations after the 2021 round. With alternative powertrain technology such as pure electric vehicles gradually being launched onto the market and with plug-in hybrids becoming more readily available the regulators can see that the technological potential is there for a another aggressive reduction in passenger car CO2 emissions. However, as ever the desire to cut emissions will have to be balanced with commercial considerations and rising R&D costs, as well as the different requirements and strengths of the large European-based OEMs. In the last round the German OEMs argued that they were being unfairly penalised as a result of building a larger percentage of heavier, premium cars which by definitions had higher emissions than for example their French and Italian counterparts and lobbied for the limit value curve to be a significant component of the regulations, the mechanism in which an equivalency formula is applied to heavier cars. A Commission official said a review of post-2020 car and light commercial vehicle standards had already been announced for 2016-2017 and there would be extensive consultation involving all those affected.
