Senior executives at Volvo Trucks have welcomed new regulations that will mean from January 2019, all new heavy-duty trucks manufactured within the EU must come with a declaration showing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.
The purpose is to make it easier for truck buyers to choose energy-efficient vehicles with lower climate impact, thereby reducing emissions from truck traffic. Volvo Trucks sees the new requirements as a welcome addition to the tools that the industry is already working with.
“The declarations will provide our customers with easy-to-understand and comparable information on fuel consumption and CO2 emissions that will provide guidance on the choice of truck,” says Lars Mårtensson, director of environment and innovation at Volvo Trucks.
“However, the most important thing is that there is now an even greater focus on energy efficiency and climate impact. This is a key issue for the automotive industry, the transport segment, and society as a whole,” he continues.
According to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), heavy road traffic accounts for about 6% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and the sector is heavily dependent on fossil fuels.
“Therefore, we hope that the new declaration requirements will also be complemented by economic incentives that make it profitable for transport companies to replace older vehicles with new, more energy efficient trucks with lower CO2 emissions,” adds Lars Mårtensson.
Currently, there are no decisions on taxes or incentives associated with the new declaration requirements. However, in the EU’s ‘A European Strategy for Low Emission Mobility’ scenario, it is assumed that CO2 emissions from truck traffic will decrease by an average of 1.5% per year until 2030.
For an average European haulage company, fuel accounts for about one-third of its variable costs. Therefore, all measures that can reduce fuel consumption are interesting from an economic perspective. Energy efficiency is an important competitive edge.
