Average CO2 emissions from new cars were up 0.4% in 2017 compared to 2016, according to data published this week by the European Environment Agency (EEA).
Erik Jonnaert, Secretary General of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) said “It is no coincidence that 2017 marked the first increase in CO2 from cars since records began in 2010, as it was also the first year that petrol overtook diesel in terms of new car sales”.
Petrol cars emit more CO2 emissions than equivalent diesel cars. As the EEA confirmed yesterday: “if similar petrol and diesel segments are compared, new conventional petrol cars emitted 10-40% more [CO2] than new conventional diesel cars.”
Jonnaert added that as diesel sales continue to decline “all indications unfortunately point to CO2 emissions increasing for a second year running in 2018.”
Recent ACEA data shows that last year only 2% of all new cars registered were electrically-chargeable. By contrast, petrol further expanded its market share by almost 6.5 percentage points in 2018, accounting for 56.7% of all cars sold in the EU.
Meeting the 2021 CO2 targets – not to mention the extremely stringent 2025 and 2030 targets that were agreed recently – will require a much stronger uptake of alternatively-powered cars.
There are several major barriers holding back consumers, such as the affordability of these cars and the lack of suitable charging and refuelling infrastructure across the EU, ACEA says.
“We urge national governments and EU policy makers to make the much-needed infrastructure investments so that sales of electrically-chargeable cars can really take off in Europe”, Jonnaert added.
