T&E
@transportenvironment.org
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Europe’s leading advocates for clean transport and energy. Fighting for an affordable zero-emission transport system that benefits both people and the planet. www.transportenvironment.org
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transportenvironment.org
LEAK: Car industry demands would cut EV sales in half & turn Europe’s car regulation into ‘Swiss cheese – full of holes’, according to T&E analysis of a leaked industry position paper.

This position will completely undermine the investment certainty needed for Europe to catch up in the EV race.
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transportenvironment.org
EV sales ambition would further be reduced by:
➡️Cancelling the 2027 'utility factor’ for PHEVs
➡️Giving carmakers CO2 credits for scrapping old cars
➡️Credits for CO2 reductions in production & the use of certain tech
➡️Counting small EVs as more than one EV sale, with extra credit if made in Europe
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transportenvironment.org
This loophole alone would cut the share of EV sales by 25% in 2035 as manufacturers could continue selling high volumes of highly polluting combustion engine cars.
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transportenvironment.org
The EU is under pressure from carmakers to weaken its car CO2 targets when it reviews the legislation this year.

According to the draft ACEA paper seen by T&E, cars running on so-called carbon neutral fuels – possibly biofuels or e-fuels – would be counted as emitting 0 grams of CO2 per km.
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transportenvironment.org
The European car lobby ACEA is demanding over 10 loopholes in the car CO2 law, including counting cars that run on alternative fuels as zero emissions.

It also wants the EU to halt its efforts to properly count the pollution of plug-in hybrid cars.
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transportenvironment.org
LEAK: Car industry demands would cut EV sales in half & turn Europe’s car regulation into ‘Swiss cheese – full of holes’, according to T&E analysis of a leaked industry position paper.

This position will completely undermine the investment certainty needed for Europe to catch up in the EV race.
🧵
transportenvironment.org
🚛 The Netherlands is seeing a major shift in urban freight thanks to zero-emission zones for freight in 18 of its cities.

By early 2025, 78% of new vans were electric -- compared to just 9% across the EU.

📑 New @cleancitiescampaign.org briefing: bit.ly/431I7al
Clean Cities Campaign graph with the title: Dutch municipalities with zero-emission zones for freight have a higher share of electric vans.
transportenvironment.org
𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻.

The EIB must stand by its climate commitments – and put its money into decarbonising Europe’s aviation sector.

#Airportexpansion is completely antithetical to this goal.
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transportenvironment.org
💰 In 2023, the EIB granted Spanish airport operator Aena an €𝟴𝟬𝟬 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗻 to support its 2022–26 investment plan, which includes expanding capacity at 13 airports across Spain – despite the EIB’s commitment to end financing for airport expansion under the previous version of the Bank Roadmap.
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transportenvironment.org
🛫 The European Investment Bank (@eib.org) published on Friday its new #ClimateBank Roadmap Phase 2.

The EIB’s decision to maintain the ban on funding for airport expansion is key.

However, this ban should also be enforced with no backdoor financing.
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Quote from Denise Auclair, Head of Travel Smart Campaign at T&E: “The EIB’s decision to maintain its ban on airport expansion funding is a clear signal that bankrolling the aviation sector’s plans to grow at uncontrollable rates is nonsensical. But the real test starts now: the ban must be enforced to the letter, with no loopholes or backdoor financing.”
transportenvironment.org
This revenue could go directly into funding solutions for one of the hardest sectors to decarbonize: aviation.

The revenue could be used to fund projects such as more sustainable aviation fuels, like synthetic kerosene.

👉 Read briefing from our Spanish office (ES) ⤵️
bit.ly/4okObDl
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España podría recaudar hasta 2.800 millones de euros si impusiera un…
El privilegio fiscal de la aviación española frena la transición verde y una vía para la reindustrialización del país, según un nuevo estudio de T&E
www.transportenvironment.org
transportenvironment.org
And they would only need to add a small surcharge to the fare:
💸 from €12–15 on an economy ticket
💼 from €50–60 on a business ticket

And if private jets — which pollute 5–14x more than economy travel — paid their fair share, that could mean an additional €72 million.
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transportenvironment.org
If they applied the “polluter pays” principle, like France, Germany, the Netherlands or the UK already do, Spain could easily collect that extra €2.8 billion, similar to building 18 hospitals in Spain.
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transportenvironment.org
🇪🇸 Spain loses nearly the most potential tax revenue in the EU, second only to France.

Why? Because aviation enjoys a tax privilege that other forms of transport don’t.
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transportenvironment.org
✈️ NEW: Spain could raise up to €2.8 billion extra for sustainable aviation by matching the taxes other Europeans put on airline tickets with simply a small surcharge per ticket.
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Graph showing tax revenue from air ticket taxation in Spain, France, Germany, United Kingdom and the Netherlands, as well as potential revenue for Spain under T&E's moderate and ambitious proposals.
transportenvironment.org
Mercedes-Benz and others want to overturn the EU’s 2035 ban on petrol cars.

This would be as disastrous for jobs as for the climate.

"Car manufacturers are already letting people go... Continuing to make combustion-engine models would not staunch job losses in the long run."
bit.ly/42KvmRq
German identity doesn’t rely on cars – Brussels should face down the mighty automakers | Tania Roettger
Mercedes-Benz and other big manufacturers want to overturn the EU’s 2035 ban on petrol cars. This would be as disastrous for jobs as for the climate, says Berlin-based journalist Tania Roettger
bit.ly
transportenvironment.org
Europe must draw a line at further concessions on PHEVs.

EU lawmakers must also use the revision of the ‘roadworthiness package’ of legislation to remove the highly polluting diesel vehicles carrying defeat devices that are still on the road. Read more bit.ly/4nrSITM
10 years after Dieselgate, the car industry is paving the way for…
Manufacturers want to kill off EU rules that would better reflect pollution from plug-in hybrid vehicles
www.transportenvironment.org
transportenvironment.org
The EU has set ‘utility factors’ to gradually tighten this gap, but the car industry has called on the EU Commission to kill off these instead of taking steps to zero-emission mobility.
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transportenvironment.org
On top of that, carmakers are again trying to pass off vehicles as cleaner than they actually are.

Today, CO2 emissions from plug-in hybrids are found to be nearly 5x what official testing shows, allowing carmakers to misclassify their PHEV sales as low-emission vehicles.
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transportenvironment.org
This makes Dieselgate an ongoing scandal. Unless action is taken, 40% of related premature deaths are yet to come – due to vehicles still on the road.
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transportenvironment.org
While the US fined carmakers and forced them to buy-back or fix the vehicles, in Europe up to 19.1 million suspiciously emitting cars are still being driven.
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transportenvironment.org
Ten years ago, the Dieselgate scandal exposed how Europe’s biggest carmakers deliberately installed defeat devices to cheat emissions tests on millions of vehicles.

These cars polluted up to 10 times above legal limits, poisoning the air we breathe and damaging citizens’ health.
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transportenvironment.org
10 years after carmakers were caught cheating, the next Dieselgate scandal will be legal.

Are PHEVs the new defeat device?
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transportenvironment.org
Today T&E joined @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu for a dialogue on the future of the EU auto industry.

While the industry is pushing to open up the CO2 standards, the EU's top priority must be to keep a clear investment signal.

Read the debrief from our Executive Director 👉 bit.ly/4nztWRX