Truckmakers are protesting European Union plans to impose strict curbs on C02 emissions, calling them unrealistic and ill-drafted.
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Volvo Trucks, Fiat’s Iveco unit and DAF have asked the European Commission and the European Parliament to redraft the planned law, warning them of chaos in an industry which employs 250,000 people.
The EU wants to cut C02 emissions by 20% from their 1990 level, by 2020. Reducing pollution from heavy trucks is to be part of this plan.
The EU is debating plans to cut emissions from vans and light trucks to 175g/km by 2016 and truckmakers fear a similar scheme might be imposed on heavy trucks.
Volvo Truck CEO Leif Johansson told reporters: “They [the plans] result from perceptions that trucks are just big cars. This can push regulation in the wrong way.”
Iveco chief Paolo Monferino said: “Those numbers are scaring us. We don’t have the technology to achieve them.”
The executives said the current plan would encourage companies to produce more lighter trucks and fewer large ones. As a result, there would be more vehicles on the roads, more congestion and more CO2 emissions.
A better measure would be counting CO2 in grammes per tonne of carried freight per km, Monferino suggested.
The truckmakers said they would carry on with plans to increase fuel efficiency in heavy trucks by 20% by 2020.
