“Fake” electric cars should be banned, says green group Transport & Environment.
On the day the European Parliament rubber-stamps stricter CO2 limits for new cars and vans, Transport & Environment warns that carmakers can exploit loopholes in the regulation to push sales of fake plug-in cars over electric vehicles with no tailpipe emissions.
As the rules on crediting EV sales leave room for gaming, carmakers can supply half of all ´zero and low-emission´ cars needed to comply with stricter CO2 limits with fake ‘electric’ cars.
Currently plug-in hybrids are often big SUVs which are rarely charged because of their very limited electric range, and they emit as much or more CO2 as diesel or petrol cars do on the road.
By allowing fake ‘electric’ cars to count towards the EV targets, it has become much easier for carmakers to earn the generous CO2 bonuses that result from over-shooting these targets. T&E’s analysis shows that carmakers can meet the new rules by selling almost 1.7 million ‘fake’ electric cars every year from 2025 and almost 4 million in 2030.
National governments can prevent the rise of fake ‘electric’ cars by promoting only electric, fuel cell and proper plug-in hybrids. Germany’s finance minister recently suggested plug-in hybrids should have a minimum range of 80km.
This is not the regulation’s only weakness: previously T&E exposed how carmakers are manipulating the 2021 baseline for the new standards by inflating the CO2 values of cars approved in the new WLTP test.
Julia Poliscanova, clean vehicles manager (right), said, “Europe’s CO2 limits for cars could be a breakthrough for e-mobility, but regulators still have a lot of work to do.
“National governments should limit incentives to zero-emission and long range plug-in hybrid cars only.
