Vans ('light commercial vehicles') account for around 12% of the light-duty vehicles newly registered in the EU and are responsible for around 2.5% of total EU emissions of carbon dioxide.
Regulation (EU) 510/2011, which is summarised on this page, set mandatory emission reduction targets for new vans. The first target fully applied from 2017 on and a stricter target applies from 2020 on.
On 17 April 2019, the European Parliament and the Council adopted Regulation (EU) 2019/631, which has introduced CO2 emission performance standards for new passenger cars and for new vans for 2025 and 2030. The new Regulation started applying on 1 January 2020 and has replaced and repealed Regulation (EU) 510/2011.
Following a phase in from 2014 onward, a target of 175 grams of CO2 per kilometre (g CO2/km) applied for the EU fleet-wide average emission of new vans between 2017 and 2019.
Emissions of 175 g CO2/km correspond to about 6.6 l/100 km of diesel fuel consumption.
This EU fleet-wide target was reached in 2013, four years ahead of schedule.
The average emissions of new vans registered in 2019 in the EU28, Iceland andNorway were 158.4 g CO2/km (provisional EEA data).
From 2020 onward, the EU fleet-wide average emission target will be 147 grams of CO2 per kilometre.
Emissions of 147 g CO2/km correspond to around 5.5 l/100 km of diesel.
The binding emission targets for manufacturers are set according to the average mass of their vehicles, using a limit value curve. This means that manufacturers of heavier vans are allowed higher emissions than manufacturers of lighter vans. The curve is set in such a way that the targets for the EU fleet-wide average emissions are achieved.
If the average CO2 emissions of a manufacturer's fleet exceed its target in a given year, the manufacturer has to pay an excess emissions premium for each van registered.
Until 2018, this premium amounted to
From 2019 onwards, the penalty is €95 for each g/km of exceedance.
To encourage eco-innovation, manufacturers can be granted emission credits for vehicles equipped with innovative technologies for which it is not possible to demonstrate the CO2-reducing effects during the test procedure used for vehicle type approval. Such emission savings have to be demonstrated based on independently verified data.
The maximum emission credits for these eco-innovations per manufacturer are 7 g/km per year.
During the years 2014 to 2017, manufacturers were given additional incentives to put on the market zero- and low-emission vans emitting less than 50 g/km through a 'super-credits' system.
This super-credits system for vans is not continued in relation to the 2020 target.
Manufacturers may group together and act jointly to meet their emission target.
In forming such a pool, manufacturers must respect the rules of competition law.
Manufacturers responsible for fewer than 22 000 new vans registered in the EU per year (“small volume” manufacturers) can propose their own derogation target, which has to be approved by the Commission based on the criteria set out in the Regulation.
Manufacturers responsible for fewer than 1 000 new vans registered in the EU per year are exempted from meeting a specific emissions target, unless they voluntarily apply for a derogation target.
The Commission has set out rules for monitoring the CO2 emissions of new vans. Information on the monitoring results can be found under the Documentation tab.