MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

EU eases path for truck and bus makers to meet 2030 CO2 targets

A heavy-duty truck on a European motorway. Brussels adopted temporary measures to ease manufacturers' path toward 2030 CO2 targets.

The European Union on Monday formally adopted temporary flexibility measures to help truck and bus manufacturers meet their 2030 CO2 emission reduction targets, without altering long-term goals.

“This amendment recognizes the structural challenges currently faced by the sector, particularly the slow deployment of public charging infrastructure along motorways,” the EU Council, which represents member states, said in a statement.

EU regulations require new trucks, buses, and coaches to cut fleet-wide CO2 emissions by 15% from 2025, 43% from 2030, and 90% by 2040. Manufacturers can earn emission credits if their fleets outperform the reduction trajectory set by law.

Under the reform — proposed by the European Commission on December 16 and endorsed without changes by both Parliament and the Council — manufacturers will be allowed to accumulate those credits between 2025 and 2029 without adhering to a stricter linear reduction path. This will enable them to generate more credits in the years leading up to 2030 and ease compliance from that point onward, the Council said.

The updated mechanism applies to heavy trucks weighing more than 16 metric tons and certain bus categories above 7.5 metric tons. It does not cover urban buses, where the shift to zero-emission vehicles is already well advanced and less dependent on motorway infrastructure. Trucks, buses, and coaches account for just 2% of vehicles on EU roads but generate more than 25% of the bloc's road transport emissions.

The move echoes the flexibility Brussels previously granted carmakers to meet their CO2 reduction targets toward 2027, a process that ultimately led to the lifting of the EU's ban on combustion engines from 2035, according to EFE. The legislation maintains a commitment to review heavy-duty vehicle emission standards in 2027.