EU’s electric vehicle plan ‘far removed from reality’, warn car makers

The European Union’s plan to have 30 million zero-emission vehicles on the road by 2030 is ‘far removed from today’s reality’, according to a leading automotive industry body.

The European Commission has laid out its Sustainable and Smart Mobility Package, which outlines the EU’s goal of making ‘the European transport system sustainable, smart and resilient’.

However, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), which represents Europe’s car manufacturers, says a 50-fold increase in zero-emissions cars would be required in just 10 years to hit that target.

New research from the organisation shows that of the 243 million passenger cars on EU roads last year, just 615,000 were zero-emission vehicles, representing 0.25 per cent on the whole car fleet.

Eric-Mark Huitema, director general of the ACEA, said: “Unfortunately this vision is far removed from today’s reality.

“Despite industry investments in such vehicles and their growing market share, not all the right conditions are in place to make such a massive leap.”

“The European Commission should match its level of ambition for rolling out infrastructure across the EU with its ambition for reducing CO2 emissions from vehicles. It is quite simple: the higher the climate targets become, the higher targets for charging points and refuelling stations should be.

“Unfortunately, we still see a mismatch between these two elements at EU level.”

The ACEA also warns that the Commission’s target of having three million public charging points to service this fleet of zero-emission vehicles ‘would require the deployment of 15 times more infrastructure over the next 11 years’.

The organisation says it wants EU legislators to push national governments to invest in charging and refuelling infrastructure to meet these goals.