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The European Council has confirmed that it is to impose an average emissions limit of 147g CO2/km for manufacturers’ LCV fleets from 2020.

The adoption of the regulation, which applies to manufacturers registering more than 1000 LCVs a year in the European Union, follows an agreement reached at a reading of the legislation with the European Parliament in January and is a ratification of the target the EC proposed in 2011.

The EC’s current emissions target of 175g CO2/km is being phased in from 2014 to 2017, by which time all van fleets must comply with the target.
The average CO2 emissions of manufacturers’ LCV ranges in the EU in 2012 was just over 180g/km, according to the EC. This year 70% of registrations must hit the 175g/km target, rising to 75% next year, 80% in 2016 and 100% from 2017.

The EC said it would review the regulation before the end of 2015 in order to establish CO2 emissions targets for vans for the period beyond 2020.

The EC will impose fines on manufacturers for exceeding the average fleet emissions target ranging from 5 Euros per vehicle for going 1g/km over the limit to 95 Euros for an excess of more than 3g/km. From 2019 fines will escalate to 95 Euros per gram.

The EC will allow “innovative technologies”, which are not covered by the type approval
test, to account for an emissions reduction of up to 7g CO2/km. These are technologies, such as LED lighting, for example, that do not affect the vehicle’s powertrain.

Manufacturers that register fewer than 22,000 vans in the EU annually can propose their own emissions reduction target, which is subject to approval by the EC.