Most passenger cars in the European Union still emit the same quantity of carbon dioxide as 12 years ago, the European Union’s auditing agency warned on Wednesday.
The European Court of Auditors said the 27-nation bloc must “shift up gear” to come close to a zero-emissions car fleet, with electric vehicles playing a crucial role.
“The EU’s green revolution can only happen if there are far fewer polluting vehicles, but the challenge is huge”, said Pietro Russo, the ECA member who led the audit. “A true and tangible reduction in cars’ CO2 emissions will not occur as long as the combustion engine prevails, but at the same time, electrifying the EU’s car fleet is a major undertaking.”
According to the auditors’ report, real emissions from conventional cars, which still account for nearly three-quarters of new vehicle registrations, have not dropped.
To be fair, I think a decade ago we expected electric cars to be more affordable and accessible. The truth is they’ve had to iron out regulations, and also looking to make battery tech materials less precious metal needed. Also there is the whole dendrite thing. Also there isn’t an entry price model available to consumers. Further the costs of EVERYTHING in general and lack of wage power is preventing the majority of us to have to deal with what we have, and can’t afford a 50K$ electric car, and the stifling insurance payments.
But if people are not able to afford electric cars explain to me why they are able to afford ever bigger ICE cars in the form of SUVs. There are hardly any sedans sold today, it is all SUVs who are wasteful and more polluting.
That’s not true. In the EU the best selling models are mostly small cars.
Because if I spend 50k on an ICE car, I get a really manly truck which makes me feel important and not like a wimp driving a car that makes me look poor!
I am so surprised that this stone age reasoning still works so well with cars.
“But I need the space! … once every two years…”
Same with fuel efficiency: “My big ass penis enlargement SUV gets the same mileage like my tiny sedan did 30 years ago, so it’s not worse for the environment!” - “But a car the size of your tiny sedan 30 years ago would now be twice as efficient?” - “Does not matter, I will use up the transportatin CO2 footprint that has been allotted to me, why should I give something up for the benefit of everyone , especially something important like a antiquated status symbol?”
In Europe the best selling models are mostly cheap small cars. Not big SUVs.
Can’t agree more
The vast majority of cars sold here are small used cars, most people don’t buy new cars around here. Like most cars you see on the streets are a decade old and maybe once old ass electric cars appear in the used car market there will be a switch.
Battery cost is a big problem, it amounts to around 20% of total vehicle cost. If you would buy a used car, you probably will need to replace it sometime soon. Battery currentlly costs more than a lot of people spend for their whole used ICE car.
Yea, that would mean focusing on EVs here is pretty much a meaningless effort and it would be better served to focus on public transit instead. At least until you can get a good EV for like 5k.
It is great that if someone now buys a new car, they chose EV or hybrid, but this change will definitely hurt those who prefer or can afford only cheap used cars.
Quite a problem in near future. Probably only breakthrough in battery tech (new type, re-use possibilities) will solve this and drive cost down for vehicles.
Uh, errrr, because well you see…
Dacia spring is less than 20k€, just a little more than others city cars (polo is 17). Of course you have only 250 km range.
I am not sure that price is the only reason people don’t go for an EV, we still want enough range to go in vacations.
250km in the best conditions. In the worst conditions around half of that.
Exactly. They are not affordable for most people right now.
Carbon emissions from transport were actually decreasing steadily in Europe until around 2016, when people started buying SUVs. The emissions have been going up again ever since.
Y’know what else would help with “The EU’s green revolution”? Bikes and trains.
Maybe limit or outright ban cars from densely populated city centers? How about taxing the biggest polluters? Decrease taxes on bicycles and e-bikes?
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/stockholm-ban-petrol-diesel-cars-city-centre-2023-10-10/ It’s not much, but at least a start
I guess. I just hope it doesn’t back fire on them.
Same in Amsterdam.
Maybe ban SUVs trucks and other assorted waste of space and resources. Or instead of banning them, tax them like they should be taxed removing loopholes for weight/size and fake commercial use.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The European Court of Auditors said the 27-nation bloc must “shift up gear” to come close to a zero-emissions car fleet, with electric vehicles playing a crucial role.
“The EU’s green revolution can only happen if there are far fewer polluting vehicles, but the challenge is huge”, said Pietro Russo, the ECA member who led the audit.
According to the auditors’ report, real emissions from conventional cars, which still account for nearly three-quarters of new vehicle registrations, have not dropped.
According to the audit body, carbon dioxide from the transport sector has continued to grow over the past 30 years.
“Only electric vehicles (which jumped from 1 in every 100 new car registrations in 2018 to almost 1 in 7 in 2022) have driven the reduction in average on-the-road CO2 emissions witnessed in recent years,” the auditors’ statement said.
Carbon dioxide is released when fossil fuels are burned to power cars, planes, homes and factories.
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