CO2 fleet emissions: Passenger cars top, commercial vehicles flop?

• The total European market for passenger cars (PCs) has no problem to comply with EU CO2 targets.
• The CO2 emissions of light commercial vehicles (LCVs) are still above the limits which is due to high pollution of large utilities.
• Stellantis stands out positively and even complies with the European CO2 limits for LCVs.

Positive CO2 development for passenger cars

Recently, the Environment Committee of the EU Parliament voted on a ban on combustion cars from 2035 in order to reduce the CO2 emissions of automobile mobility to zero.

The target seems ambitious, but in the passenger car segment the European CO2 development is going according to plan, as the Dataforce Road2Zero Dashboard shows. With a reduction of 10 g/km CO2 compared to the previous year’s quarter, the EU-wide average of 113 g/km CO2 in Q1 2022 was below the WLTP target of 116 g/km CO2. Considering the Supercredits, which are still permitted in 2022, the figure is even significantly lower (107 g/km CO2). However, the question now arises as to how the whole thing will look for light commercial vehicles.

Adjusted CO2 targets for LCVs

Light commercial vehicles have been given separate CO2 targets by the EU due to their size and use. The 147g/km NEDC target converts to an approximate WLTP target of 180 g/km CO2, which is higher than that of passenger cars. If an additional EU weight adjustment is considered, the target would be around 184 g/km CO2. The current European emission average (EU 27 + IS, NO without Malta) for LCVs of 188 g/km CO2 is therefore still too high to reach the objective. The main reason for this is the rather high share of diesel vehicles in most countries, which account for 88.0% of the market. Diesel LCVs are on average about 20 g/km CO2 above the target.

Electric transporters as a necessary development step

In order to reduce the CO2 average, we believe it will be necessary to rely increasingly on electric transporters. This will be especially true for the segments of medium and large utilities, as this is where most CO2 is produced and consequently can be saved. In the segment of large utilities, however, electric drives have hardly arrived at all. At only 1.44%, the market share is less than half of that in small utilities (4.98%) and medium utilities (5.57%).

Stellantis performs above average in CO2 comparison

Looking at the manufacturers, it is noticeable that the Stellantis brands are doing very well. The top 10 manufacturers for LCVs include four Stellantis makes (Peugeot, Citroen, Fiat and Opel), which already reach the emission target with an average of 163 g/km CO2. The group as a whole stands at 165 g/km CO2. Apart from an above-average share of electric vehicles (4.7% compared to 3.8% of the total market), there is another reason for this. The Stellantis Group offers many vehicles in the small utilities segment, in which generally less CO2 is produced due to the lower weight of the vehicles.