EU Lobby Group Urges Stricter Emission Standards for Corporate Fleets

 A leading European environmental group has called for tighter rules regarding the inclusion of environmentally friendly vehicles in corporate fleets, urging the European Union to revise its current emissions quotas for company cars. Transport & Environment (T&E) said that the European Commission’s proposed quotas for zero- and low-emission vehicles should be more ambitious and exclude low-emission and plug-in hybrid vehicles, which, according to the group, fail to meet real-world environmental standards.

T&E’s position paper highlights that the European Commission’s current proposal, introduced in December, recommends new quotas for corporate cars and vans starting in 2030. This comes after lengthy negotiations with the automotive industry, which have already resulted in a compromise to backtrack on a previous plan to ban new combustion-engine cars by 2035. The lobby group, however, argues that these current targets are insufficient to achieve the EU's climate goals.

The paper calls for zero-emission vehicles — including fully electric and hydrogen-powered models — to comprise 69% of corporate fleets by 2030, up from the previously estimated 45%. T&E also insists that low-emission and plug-in hybrid vehicles, which can switch between electricity and fuel, should be excluded from these quotas due to their real-world emissions being higher than regulatory tests suggest. The group criticized the lack of incentives for company car drivers to charge plug-in hybrids and argued that they might actually increase emissions, especially since drivers often have access to fuel cards that make it easier to rely on traditional combustion engines.

Furthermore, T&E projected that with the current proposal, corporate sales of plug-in hybrids would surge by more than double within four years, undermining the EU’s efforts to significantly reduce emissions from its vehicle fleet.

Tighter Rules Could Help EU Meet Climate Targets

According to T&E, stricter rules for corporate fleets could push the EU closer to achieving its targets for electric vehicle (EV) sales by 2030. The group estimates that its proposed, more stringent quotas could result in 1.9 million additional sales of EU-made electric cars by 2030, an increase from the 1.2 million projected by the Commission’s plan. This would better align with current market trends in countries such as Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Sweden, where EV adoption is already accelerating.

The paper also stressed the importance of eliminating subsidies for petrol and diesel company cars, which currently cost the EU more than €42 billion ($49.5 billion) annually, while encouraging tax benefits for European-made EVs to help boost domestic manufacturing.

T&E's Clean Fleets Manager, Sofie Grande y Rodriguez, emphasized that the car industry stands to gain from a more robust and forward-thinking approach to corporate fleet emissions. "It’s in the European car industry’s interests that they get this done right," she said.

The proposed shift in policy is set to play a crucial role in the EU's broader efforts to tackle the climate crisis, particularly in the transport sector, which remains one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions across the bloc.