EU to gift weaker climate targets to car industry in return for no commitments

The EU Commission will weaken the 2025 CO2 target for carmakers by allowing them to comply over three years instead of one, President Ursula von der Leyen said today. The measure, which still needs to be passed by EU governments and MEPs, is an unprecedented gift to Europe’s car industry in the middle of a compliance year.

The Commission said it would propose to stretch the compliance window for the 2025 target up until 2027. If implemented, this flexibility would allow carmakers to sell fewer clean cars in 2025 in exchange for selling more clean models in 2026-27. This would delay the scale-up of EV production in Europe and remove pressure on the industry to roll out cheaper EV models in 2025.

William Todts, executive director of T&E and participant in the EU Automotive Dialogue, said: “Weakening the EU clean car rules rewards laggards and does little for Europe’s car industry except to leave it further behind China on electric vehicles. The EU risks creating very damaging uncertainty about the electric vehicle transition in Europe. So, we expect an automotive action plan that restores confidence and puts Europe and its industry back on track towards 100% emission-free cars in 2035.”

The current 2025 CO2 target is well within the reach of European carmakers which have until the end of the year to comply. By changing the compliance window to three years, car manufacturers will be under less pressure to supply more affordable models such as the Renault R5 and Citroën eC3, both of which were timed to help meet the 2025 target.