EU restricted trucks and automakers to return to winter

The EU’s traffic reductions have taken another step forward.

On December 20th, the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council reached an informal agreement to limit the number of light trucks (LCVs).

"Land transportation is like the discharge valve of the EU-27, and it must be taken care of." According to the agency's statistics, the land transport is the EU's only "growth point" for emissions.

This shows that following the start of the regulation of emissions from passenger vehicles in 2007, the European Union started to use trucks. Unlike passenger cars, truck restrictions will have a greater impact on the economy of Europe as a whole. Although the standard for restricting heavy trucks has not yet been issued, the EU has no intention of “softening” the soft-banking standard.

Connie Hedegaard, member of the EU's Directorate General of Climate, believes that automakers can achieve this goal through technological innovation. She welcomed the restrictions on this row: “This is an important step taken by the EU following the restriction of passenger cars, which marks the beginning of the EU’s regulation of trucks.”

The new regulations for light trucks and heavy penalties are for small trucks with a weight of no more than 3.5 tons or no less than 2.61 tons when loaded at full load.

In order to achieve the Kyoto Protocol's commitments, the EU decided to control CO2 emissions to 175 g/km before 2016 and it will be implemented in stages from 2014. It will eventually reach 135 g/km in 2020. The average CO2 emission of LCV in 2007 was 203 g/km.

The EU requires that all manufacturers must ensure that vehicles registered in the European Union must begin to comply with this standard from 2014 onwards, and that in 2014, 75% of vehicles will be required to comply. In 2016, 80% of vehicles are required to comply with the standard. Until 2020, 100% of vehicles must comply with the EU's carbon dioxide emission standards.

At the same time, the European Union stated that it will not only carry out accounting for each vehicle, but will be approved according to the production line. Because, this is to ensure that manufacturers can continue to produce cars that exceed emission standards in a short period of time, as long as they meet the entire production line. This means that manufacturers produce more low-emission vehicles to "neutralize" their entire production line's emissions.

If you fail to meet the standards, what kind of penalties will you face? The EU General Directorate of Climate said: They expect all manufacturers to meet standards, so they will try to avoid major penalties. The EU's position can be described as "soft punches."

This is because the fee rate set for this time is no less than the 95 g/km for passenger cars. That is, the first gram per kilometer will be fined 5 euros, the second gram 15 euros, the third gram 25 euros, 4 grams per kilometer and beyond the number of grams exceeded will face a fine of 120 euros per gram.

After the Japanese auto companies prevailed on the 20th, the three parties of the European Union reached an informal agreement, and there are people who continue to question whether such measures will harm the European auto industry.

The EU said that this move is to further enhance the competitiveness of its automotive industry. The specific explanation is that this regulation will monitor all manufacturers that sell LCVs in Europe, so manufacturers including the United States, Japan, and South Korea must comply with the new emission regulations as well as European manufacturers. For example, Ford Europe needs to reduce emissions according to the new EU regulations.

In order to avoid having too large an impact on small manufacturers, the EU even advocated that they “hump” emissions. For example, manufacturers can form an abatement group and work together to achieve a certain emission target. For example, some manufacturers produce high-emission vehicles, while others produce low-emission vehicles. These manufacturers can organize a balance of emission reduction curves.

And those manufacturers that do not want to “bump” emissions and have annual production of less than 22,000 LCVs can apply for their own emission reduction targets to the European Commission.

The EU side stated that the new emission reduction standards will inevitably require manufacturers to increase investment, but this will be good for users in the long term. In particular, considering that most users of LCV are small and medium-sized companies, this measure can help them save costs.

Our reporter has also learned that China’s Zhengzhou Nissan’s Sage’s and Capstone’s models, which currently have relatively large LCV exports in China, can achieve emissions standards of 175 g/km.

But manufacturers are more concerned about the cost. Regarding the new emission reduction standards will increase the cost of LCV, the EU's calculation result is: If each new car is to reach 175 g/km, it will also need to pay 1,100 euros in addition to the saved fuel costs. To reach 135 g/km in 2020, the cost will increase by 3,200 to 3,500 euros.

In fact, since February 2007, the European Union has started restricting emissions to passenger cars and trucks, hoping to reduce passenger vehicle emissions to 120 g/km in 2012. For LCV, the EU’s current bill has “nothing to do with all the methods” except for restrictions on air conditioning in cars.

Truck manufacturers questioned whether such a policy should be eased in the context of the economic crisis. The EU has responded that the most competitive cars in the world in the future must be the most energy-efficient vehicles. According to the EU, energy conservation will be the most important manifestation of the competitiveness of automobiles. This decree only accelerates the pace of energy conservation in the European automobile industry.

The EU General Directorate of Climate also stated that in the future, as long as LCVs are sold in Europe, they must be bound by this decree. They judge that this will be a competition between Europe and Japan.

The EU’s vigilance with Japan is not unfounded. It is reported that as early as 2008, Japan submitted to the European Commission a new standard for automotive carbon dioxide emissions, claiming that before 2009, CO2 emissions were reduced to 140 g/km. The industry believes that this will allow Japanese cars to be sold unimpeded in Europe.

The truck manufacturer protested that it was reported that before the informal agreement was reached on the 20th, there were reports that developed countries such as Germany, France and Italy clearly expressed opposition to the developed countries. They considered that the feasible standard was 147 g/km in 2020.

"The big automakers, especially Germany, oppose this bill. Truck manufacturers say that achieving this kind of energy efficiency will lead to high costs." Kerstin Meyer of the European Green Transport Organization T&E said: "But recent studies have shown that existing Technology can increase truck energy efficiency by 16%.”

According to Reuters news, Volvo, Fiat's Iveco and DAF executives stated at the initial drafting of the decree in October this year that they asked the European Union and the European Parliament to reformulate the proposed law and warned that the industry involved Hiring staff is 250,000 employees.

On December 20, after an informal agreement between the European Commission and the European Parliament and the European Council, a reporter asked the European Commission’s Directorate-General for the Environment whether the decree would exacerbate unemployment in Europe or directly lead to the automobile industry Regional "immigrants", the European Commission did not give an answer.

Senior officials are more worried about whether the EU will start heavy trucks after the 175g/km standard is implemented by LCV. Levo Johansson, chief executive of Volvo, said: “Their opinion is that trucks are just bigger cars. They are pushing legislation in the wrong way.” And Iveco’s chief executive, Paolo Monferino, also said: “We were surprised by these figures. We There is no corresponding technology to achieve this reduction."

The recommendations of the truck manufacturing executives are: Calculate the number of grams of carbon dioxide emitted by driving 1 kilometer of truck load.

At the same time, some manufacturers believe that the ever-increasing emission standards in Europe have seen diminishing returns. Paul Monteferino, Chief Executive Officer of Iveco Trucks of the Fiat Group, had publicly stated that the environmental benefits that the Euro VI can bring to the European V Standard are even smaller, and the inputs and returns are not proportional.

On the listing of Iveco Eco Daily series trucks and light trucks, Paul Monferino once said: "In January 2014, new vehicle approvals will need to meet Euro VI standards. Starting in 2015, new car registration will implement Euro VI standards. It is recommended to postpone both these two years."

For this reason, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association has called on European commercial vehicle manufacturers to call for the European Union to suspend the strict restrictions on trucks. They believe that another more effective way is that the EU will replace the tens of thousands of Euro I standards or older trucks that are still in operation by effective means.