In terms of road transport, heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) are the hardest to fully decarbonise. Due to their size and weight, electrified trucks face shorter ranges and long charge times to fill up the massive batteries required to power them. This means the decarbonisation of the sector is lagging behind smaller vehicles.
Nevertheless, MEPs have now voted for the aforementioned targets to cut truck emissions, as well as an interim 70 per cent target for 2035, which was higher than the 65 per cent initially proposed by the Commission.
They also said the standards should be extended to cover the 20 per cent of heavy-duty vehicle sales the Commission has proposed to exempt, such as waste and construction trucks and small trucks driving in cities.
Fedor Unterlohner, freight manager at climate campaigners Transport and Environment (T&E), said: “MEPs have doubled down on the environment minister’s support for the draft targets, except they don’t want a fifth...