CO₂ emissions from cars

Question for written answer  E-001906/2021
to the Commission
Rule 138
Cindy Franssen (PPE)

According to a Greenpeace study, real average emissions from new cars have barely fallen in the last 14 years[1]. The study[2] states that this is partly because of loopholes such as:

• 1.pooling, which allows car manufacturers to team up and act together in order to meet EU CO₂ standards;
• 2.the weight factor, whereby the specific CO₂ target is calculated on the basis of the average weight of new cars sold by the manufacturer, meaning that the heavier a manufacturer's cars are, the more lax the CO ₂ target is for that manufacturer;
• 3.plug-in hybrids, which combine a combustion engine and an electric powertrain, making them extremely fuel-efficient on paper, but in practice they have a much higher fuel consumption than in test bench performance.

The Commission intends to revise the relevant legislation on CO₂ emissions this year. Accordingly, I have the following questions:

• 1.Does the Commission agree with the analysis in the study and share the view about the role of the three loopholes referred to?
• 2.Does the Commission intend to put an end to pooling, the weighting factor and preferential calculations for plug-in hybrids when the relevant legislation is revised?

• [1] https://www.greenpeace.org/belgium/nl/persbericht/20990/klimaatinspanningen-bmw-daimler-en-volkswagen-zijn-niet-veel-meer-dan-boekhoudkundige-trucs/
• [2] https://www.greenpeace.de/sites/www.greenpeace.de/files/s03501_gp_co2_loopholes_3_2021_3.pdf