Climate Action: Data shows CO2 emissions from new cars strongly decreased in 2020, with electric vehicles tripling their market share as new targets are applied

Provisional monitoring data, published today, shows that the average CO₂ emissions of new cars registered in the EU, Iceland, Norway and the UK in 2020 have decreased by 12% compared to 2019. This is by far the greatest annual decrease in emissions since CO2 standards started to apply in 2010. It coincides with the phase in of stricter CO2 emissions standards for cars as of January 1, 2020. For the period 2020-2024, the Regulation sets the EU fleet-wide CO₂ emission targets at 95 gCO2/km for newly registered cars and at 147g CO2/km for newly registered vans. The main reason for this sharp decrease of CO₂ emissions was the surge in the share of electric vehicle registrations, which tripled from 3.5% in 2019 to over 11% in 2020. Despite the shrinking overall market for new cars due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the total number of electric cars registered in 2020 still increased, reaching for the first time over 1 million a year. The average CO2 emissions from new vans sold in the EU, Iceland, Norway and the United Kingdom in 2020 also slightly decreased. The provisional data shows that European legislation on CO2 emissions standards continues to be an effective tool for reducing CO2 emissions from cars and vans, and that the shift to electro-mobility is underway. Vehicle manufacturers have 3 months to review the data and may notify the Commission if they believe there are any errors in the dataset. The final data, to be published at the end of October 2021, will be the basis for the Commission to determine manufacturers’ compliance with their specific emission targets, and whether any fines are due for excess emissions. The revision of the current CO2 emissions standards to align them with the EU’s higher new climate ambitions will be part of the Commission’s Fit for 55 proposals, due for adoption on 14 July. For more information please see here.