The European Parliament has approved an amendment to European Union rules on calculating CO₂ emission credits for heavy-duty vehicles, a move that could ease compliance requirements for truck manufacturers while leaving long-term emissions targets unchanged.
Under current EU regulations, manufacturers must reduce emissions from new lorries by 15% by 2025, 45% by 2030, and 90% by 2040, compared with 2019 levels. Companies are pursuing these targets by introducing more battery-electric trucks while also improving the efficiency of internal combustion engine vehicles.
The amendment proposed by the European Commission does not revise these targets but changes how compliance is calculated. It gives manufacturers more flexibility to earn CO₂ credits if they exceed emission reduction targets in certain years and allows those credits to be carried forward and applied in future compliance periods.
Under the previous framework, a linear emission reduction curve applied between the milestone years of 2025, 2030, and 2040. This meant emissions reductions had to increase gradually each year. For example, the reduction requirement would have risen from 15% in 2025 to roughly 20% in 2026 and about 26% in 2027, continuing to increase until reaching 45% by 2030.
The amendment removes that curve between 2025 and 2029. Instead, the 15% reduction target set for 2025 will apply for each year through 2029. This change allows manufacturers that exceed the 15% reduction threshold to accumulate emission credits rather than being judged against a progressively increasing annual requirement.
For example, if a manufacturer achieves an 18% reduction in 2026, it would now earn credits that could be used to offset future obligations once stricter targets come into force.
The decision follows lobbying by several major truck manufacturers, including Volvo Trucks, Daimler Truck, Scania, MAN Truck & Bus, Iveco, and Ford Motor, which wrote to EU officials in October requesting more flexibility in the emissions framework. The companies argued that eliminating the reduction curve would allow additional CO₂ savings achieved between 2025 and 2029 to be applied toward the 45% reduction target in 2030 and subsequent years.
The European Commission partly justified the change by pointing to the limited charging infrastructure currently available for electric trucks across Europe, particularly along major freight routes.
Environmental groups have expressed concern that the new system could slow the uptake of zero-emission trucks. According to NABU, the share of zero-emission lorries in new registrations by 2030 could decline from around 35% to between 18% and 28% under the revised framework.
“Analyses indicate that the share of zero-emission lorries in new registrations by 2030 could drop from around 35 per cent to approximately 18 to 28 per cent,” said Merlin Jonack.
Before the amendment can take effect, it must still be formally approved by EU member states. However, the step is widely seen as procedural because representatives in the Council of the European Union have already signaled support for the measure.