Prague, April 13 (CTK) – The Visegrad Group (V4 countries) automotive industry associations will call on the European Union (EU) to reduce its CO2 emissions cuts target for new cars from the proposed 30 to 20 percent in 2021-2030, Czech Automotive Industry Association head Bohdan Wojnar said today.
The European Commission (EC) should also cancel additional measures aimed at cutting emissions by 15 percent until 2025, Wojnar said after the summit of the V4 countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia).
“We are fully resolved to continue transport decarbonisation, which is why we welcome and back all effective and economically feasible ways of cutting CO2 emissions of motor vehicles,” said Wojnar.
“We would like to emphasise that average CO2 emissions of new automobiles have decreased by 28 percent in the EU since 2005, their reduction to reach 42 percent by 2021,” Wojnar said.
A proposal submitted by the Commission last autumn, now debated in European Parliament, is not fully technology neutral, he said.
Any new regulatory measure to affect the automotive segment must take into account that this industry is a big contributor to the gross domestic product, export and employment of the V4 group as well as the entire EU, Wojnar pointed out.
Achievement of the emissions targets will depend, to a large extent, on demand for alternative fuel vehicles, V4 associations’ representatives said.
Alternative fuel infrastructure will play a key role in this respect, they said. The EU directives should therefore comprise conditions providing for adaptation of the 2030 target to market reality, V4 countries said.
New registrations of cars with alternative drive systems made up 5.8 percent (of the total figure) in the EU-15 in 2017, with the electric cars’ share at 1.5 percent. In Central and Eastern European countries and in the south of the continent, the market share of electric and plug-in hybrid cars is up to 0.5 percent.
V4’s car makers produced over 3.6 million vehicles in 2017, with the Czech Republic making 1.42 million and Slovakia 1.03 million units.
The automotive industry employs directly and indirectly over 636,000 and 1.3 million people, respectively, in the region.