Brussels, 28/04/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 28 April, Commissioner for Industry Antonio Tajani presented the European Parliament's industry committee and the press with a common strategy for encouraging the development and use of clean energy saving vehicles. The initial outline of the strategy was sketched out during the informal Competitive Council in January and its formal counterpart in March (EUROPE 10075 and 10089). As part of the EU 2020 strategy on smart and sustainable growth, this strategy defines the medium-term orientations for enhancing competitiveness in the EU car industry and asserting its spearhead role in the production of clean and energy-saving vehicle production.
EU member states and third party partners are currently taking significant national and regional measures to promote mass production and the adoption by the market of green vehicles. At the same time, change is speeding up with the development of industrial projects to increase the mass distribution of traditional energy-saving vehicles, in addition to a sizeable influx of electric vehicles in 2011. In 2020, conventional vehicles will still be the main means of transport but electric vehicles will be close behind, whose production is currently expanding rapidly. According to forecasts, the number of cars in the world will increase from 800 million to 1.6 billion, to reach 2.5 billion units by 2050. This expansion will be accompanied by increased energy scarcity and costs, to which technological development will have to respond in order to guarantee long-term sustainable mobility. Electric vehicles with ultra low carbon emissions and powered by hydrogen batteries constitute the most promising options in this connection.
Action plan in support of “green” vehicles. The strategy aims to encourage the development and adoption of heavy (coaches and lorries) and light vehicles (cars and vans), two and three wheeled vehicles and green quadracycles (clean and energy-saving), by putting in place an appropriate political and neutral framework from a technological point of view. Two parallel strategies are also envisaged: - promoting clean and energy saving vehicles that use traditional engines; - and facilitating the use of pioneering technology for very low carbon emitting vehicles. The following propulsion systems have been examined: - alternative fuels for engines that replace petrol and diesel, including liquid biofuels and gas fuel (GPL, GNC and biogas); - electric vehicles containing an electric motor that can be charged on the electricity mains; - and hydrogen battery powered vehicles.
By utilising these measures and defining medium and long-term action, the Commission intends to: 1) pursue its legislative programme on reducing emissions from vehicles. In this area, it is putting particular emphasis on: - proposing a regulation in 2010 that sets out emission standards for two and three wheel vehicles and quadricycles (category L); - preparing implementation measures by 2011 for Regulation 443/2009/EC establishing CO2 emission performance standards for new private cars; - presenting a proposal aimed at reducing the impact of mobile air-conditioning systems in terms of energy consumption by 2011; 2) supporting R&D and innovation in green technologies. In this area, the Commission will seek to ensure that European research continues to orientate its efforts towards low carbon intensity fuels, clean and energy-saving transport, including improvement of traditional engines, electric propulsion systems, including alternative battery and hydrogen technologies with subsidies that have a clear added value at an EU level; 3) proposing guidelines for demand-incentives. In this field, the Commission will present guidelines in 2010 on financial incentives promoting the purchase of green vehicles.
Specific action for electric vehicles. Although the Commission is neutral on what technology ought to be selected, it does, nonetheless, consider that the European framework is in need of electric mobility systems. This is even more apparent because electric vehicles (particularly hybrids) are considered ready for the large distribution market and several member states, Germany, Denmark, Spain, France and Portugal are promoting electro-mobility. The Commission has announced a certain number of actions that are more orientated towards enhancing the capacity of this technology. It is therefore seeking to: - pay particular attention to the safety of new vehicles in comparison to their conventional equivalents; - promote common standards to enable all electric vehicles to charge anywhere in Europe; - encourage the installation of publicly accessible recharging stations; - promote cutting-edge smart electric networks; - and update regulation on recycling batteries.
Finally, it should be noted that in order to speed up implementation of its “green” vehicle strategy, the Commission will relaunch the activities of the high-level CARS 21 group. (E.H./transl.fl)