Europe’s vehicle emissions haven’t changed in more than a decade, say officials

Despite the increase in electric vehicles, officials say vehicle carbon emissions have failed to drop in Europe, thanks to more powerful – and heavier – new cars.

A new report from the European Union has revealed CO2 emissions from vehicles are the same as they were 12 years ago – despite the adoption of hybrid and electric cars.

According to the European Court of Auditors, real emissions from cars – which account for three-quarters of new motor vehicle registrations – have not dropped.

While petrol cars have “marginally decreased” by 4.6 per cent over the period, diesel cars have remained constant, it says.

Despite improvements in engine efficiency, the scathing report claims this technological progress has been undermined by the average weight of cars rising by approximately 10 per cent, as well as engines increasing in power by 25 per cent.

“The same applies to hybrid cars, whose real-world CO2 emissions tend to be much higher than those recorded in the laboratory,” the authors said in a statement.

The official report correlates with a study released in October 2023, which claimed the UK’s new-car emissions were higher than they were a decade ago.

“In the 2010s, car manufacturers have exploited loopholes in test requirements to obtain reduced emissions in the laboratory,” the latest report alleges, citing the so-called ‘Dieselgate’ scandal in which Volkswagen Group vehicles were found to be using software to cheat official emissions tests.

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While the auditors expressed concerns about access to raw battery materials and charging infrastructure across the bloc, the report says only electric vehicles were having a noticeable impact on the emissions data being collected.

In 2022, one in seven new cars registered were electric – compared to one in 100 in 2018 – while sales of electric cars in Europe increased by a further 37 per cent in 2023 compared to the prior year.

It’s estimated the transport sector accounted for 23 per cent of the European Union’s total greenhouse gas emissions in 2022, with passenger cars making up more than half of that output.

The report from the European Court of Auditors comes at the same time as a joint study by think tanks Nomisma and Carbon Tracker, which alleges car manufacturers are grossly underreporting the emissions from their vehicles.

It claims the estimated real emissions from vehicles in Europe were 27 per cent higher than claimed by car companies.

However, it says the gap in reporting has fallen since 2020, when there was a 46 per cent differential between emissions reported by automakers and those estimated by the authors.

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While the world’s largest car giants were criticised in the study, it praised Ford and Stellantis – the latter being the parent company of 14 car brands, including Alfa Romeo, Citroen, Fiat, Jeep, Peugeot, and Ram – which reported fleet emissions higher than the study had found.

In the report, it estimates Ford’s fleet emissions were 12.1 per cent lower than those quoted by the Blue Oval, while emissions were estimated to be 15.2 per cent less than the official numbers from Stellantis.

“Automakers continue to be high emitters of carbon dioxide, comparable to the emissions of developed nations,” Senior Analyst Ben Scott from London’s Carbon Tracker said in a written statement.

“Emissions from automakers need to be monitored correctly and accurately to ensure the decarbonisation of the automotive sector. However, our analysis shows that there is a ‘carbon gap’ between automaker-declared emissions and estimated emissions of 27 per cent on average.”

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