CO2 emissions from trucks in the EU: An analysis of the heavy-duty CO2 standards baseline data
Working Paper
CO2 emissions from trucks in the European Union: An analysis of the 2021 reporting period
The 2024 revision of the carbon dioxide (CO2) standards for trucks and buses in the European Union is one of the world’s most ambitious regulations to decarbonize the heavy-duty vehicle sector. The revised standards maintained the 2025 target—a 15% reduction in CO2 emissions relative to 2019—but increased the 2030 target to a 45% reduction in emissions. More stringent targets for 2035 and 2040 will require emission reductions of 65% and 90%, respectively.
To track the performance of different truck manufacturers toward meeting those targets, the European Environment Agency publishes the certified CO2 emissions of new trucks in the European Union. The agency recently published trucks certification data for the third reporting period, extending from July 2021 to June 2022.
This analysis presents the CO2 emissions performance of the top truck manufacturers, the different strategies manufacturers are pursuing to meet the 2025 EU CO2 emissions targets:
- Fleet-average emissions for new trucks in the European Union have decreased by 0.56% annually between 2019 and 2021, far below the 2.5% annual reduction needed to meet 2025 targets.
- Scania, the only manufacturer on track to meet its 2025 targets, remained the least-emitting manufacturer for the third reporting period.
- IVECO remained the highest-emitting manufacturer in the 2021 reporting period, while MAN recorded the largest improvement in reducing CO2 emissions between 2019 and 2021.
- DAF, MAN, and Mercedes-Benz mainly focused on improving the emissions performance of their diesel and natural gas vehicle fleet.
- IVECO, Renault, Scania, and Volvo pursued a mixed approach with continuous improvement in their conventional vehicle performance and an increasing share of zero-emission vehicles.
The 2021 fleet-average of specific emissions of originally regulated trucks decreased from 52.7 g CO2/tkm to 52.1 g CO2/tkm between 2019 and 2021, a reduction of 1.13%.
