Now that the trilogue* has reached an agreement on reducing CO2 emissions from buses and lorries, the European industry is calling on Europe to put its money where its mouth is when it comes to developing recharging infrastructure.

As you can read on the European Council website, the rules have now been set for decarbonising heavy-duty mobility. The target for reducing CO2 emissions is 45% by 2030, 65% by 2035 and 90% by 2040. And it is already 15% by 2025. The measures apply to lorries over 7.5 tonnes and coaches. As far as buses are concerned, city buses will have to be zero-emission from 2030.

The effectiveness and impact of the amended regulation will be reviewed by the Commission in 2027. It will also define a method for taking into account the carbon footprint over the entire lifecycle of vehicles using carbon-neutral fuels.

It should be noted that the text takes retrofitting into account, with the intention of facilitating this process from 2025.

700 hydrogen stations needed by 2030

In response, ACEA states that bus and truck manufacturers fully support these decisions. However, the association points out that this is a real challenge, given the lack of resources for refuelling these vehicles. It estimates that 400,000 battery-electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles will be on the road by 2030. Between now and then, Europe needs 50,000 suitable charging stations (the majority being Megawatt Charging Systems) and 700 hydrogen refuelling stations. “We are playing our part by investing and ramping up series production of zero-emission trucks and buses, but we rely on our customers’ ability to invest and operate new vehicles to replace older vehicles currently on Europe’s roads,” adds ACEA Director General Sigrid de Vries.

*Informal meeting attended by representatives of the three European institutions. These bodies are the European Commission (EC), the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament. In the event of disagreements between the European Parliament and the Council on a text, trilogue negociations are used to facilitate compromises by involving the Commission as mediator.

Do you want to learn more about ACEA? Then our latest article mentioning the association should interest you. You can read it here.

Article written by Laurent Meillaud and translated by Logan King