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23/11/2011 - EU Commission Task Force concludes that CNG and LNG should be more heavily promoted in transportmore

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01/10/2011 - FRANKFURT MOTOR SHOW: 5 new NGV series models. European Commission visit to Erdgas Mobil standmore

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Clean and energy efficient vehicles: European Commission tables technology neutral strategy

Brussels, 28th April 2010

The European Commission released a Communication to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social Committee on a European strategy on clean and energy efficient vehicles (see entire document below), which sets out a policy to support the creation of a clean and energy efficient transport system in the EU that will contribute to achieving the Europe 2020 objectives. NGVA Europe was contributing to the debate on the future of transport as a stakeholder by participating in various stakeholder meetings, specifically also on this issue of clean and energy efficient vehicles (see all contributions here).

The Communication reveals that "the Commission will determine and compare the environmental and carbon footprint of vehicles (internal combustion engine, electric, gas fuelled vehicles and hydrogen) based on a life cycle approach". In a related press release of the European Commission it is said that "the plan is part of a sweeping new strategy for introducing more ‘green’ cars to the market, seen as crucial to reviving the car industry and weaning Europe off oil. The approach embraces efficient petrol-powered vehicles, as well as electric cars and models that run on natural gas, biofuels and hydrogen."

During the press conference to present the Communication, Antonio Tajani, EC Vice-President and Commissioner in charge of Industry and Entrepreneurship, insisted on a broader and technologically neutral perspective of the Commission. "Certain member states are paying particular attention to electric vehicles, but there are alternatives as well, for example hydrogen cars, natural gas cars or biofuel cars", he said. "So let the citizens and the market decide", the Commissioner finished (see audiovisual of the press conference).

The Communication on clean and energy efficient vehicles contains an Action Plan composed of over 40 concrete and ambitious measures (regarding financial incentives, legislative programmes and research projects). In this manner the Commission will e.g., among others:

present guidelines on financial incentives to consumers to buy green vehicles in 2010, encourage coordination of demand-side measures adopted in Member States, ensure that any benefit accruing to industry is in line with existing State Aid rules;
take action to ensure more coordination and improve the overall effectiveness of measures taken by of Member States in the area of vehicle taxation in order to promote green vehicles;
launch a research project to fully understand consumer expectations and buying behaviours and test different possible information tools to compare clean and energy efficient cars with conventional vehicles;
present a proposal to amend Directive 1999/94/EC on car labelling.

Some of the important issues NGVA Europe pointed out during the recent stakeholders meeting, in order to explain the role that NG/biomethane could play today and in the mid-long term within the European environmental and transport policies, have retained in the official synthesis of stakeholder comments:

- "According to NGVA, CNG is a better bridging solution than other biofuels, as it can also be produced from urban waste to forestry biomass and has the same molecular structure than natural gas. It could also be used with important emission advantages in urban heavy transport. CNG, especially biomethane, can be both used to power engines but also to provide energy to the natural gas grid. By 2030, based on studies, biomethane could provide 15% of the EU energy base. In terms of infrastructure, pipelines and biomass plantations would be needed alongside each other. Green Corridors, transports networks using a fleet of vehicles run on renewables would be an interesting future perspective and would contribute to CO₂ reduction." (p. 5)

- "NGVA however considers the mix of hydrogen and natural gas as a viable option especially for use in buses and trucks. Hydrogen production, storage, compression and logistics should continue to be explored. Overall hydrogen/CNG mixes still provide the same power as natural gas on its own." (p. 6)

Source: NGVA Europe

Find an overview of all relevant documents and references here.