EU aims to boost number of electric cars in drive for cleaner air

THE EUROPEAN Commission has said it wants to cut emissions of carbon dioxide from cars by 30 per cent by 2030, and boost the use of electric vehicles by making them cheaper and easier to charge.

The proposal stops short of imposing fixed quotas for emissionfree vehicles, and is more modest than goals already set out by some EU members.

However, European car makers said the new targets were too drastic.

Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic insisted the plan is the most “realistic” compromise between Europe’s ambitions to blaze trails on clean energy and the costs that the continent’s powerful car manufacturers will have to bear to overhaul workforces and production.

Current targets require car makers to achieve the average permitted emission for new models in the European Union of 95 grams of CO2 per kilometre for cars, or 147 grams for light commercial vehicles by 2021.

The new proposal foresees a further reduction of 15 per cent by 2025 and 30 per cent by 2030, compared to 2021 levels.

Car companies which fail to meet those targets face substantial fines of €95 (£83) per excess gram of carbon dioxide per car.

The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, criticised the 2025 target, saying “it does not leave enough time to make the necessary technical and design changes to vehicles, in particular to light commercial vehicles given their longer development and production cycles”.

The European executive’s plan also includes €800m (£704m) in funding for the expansion and standardisation of thousands of electric charging stations all across Europe.