Road transport is becoming cleaner, but it is not yet clean enough to achieve the European climate goals. RAI Association and Bovag report this. They emphasize that the next government must, among other things, revise the car tax system in order to achieve these goals.
In a relatively short period of time, not only cars with a conventional hybrid powertrain have become established, plug-ins, electric cars and mild hybrids have also become increasingly common. RAI Vereniging and Bovag write that such innovations in powertrains have done a lot of good to reduce the emission of harmful substances. For example, the NOx emissions of total Dutch road transport would be 36 percent lower than in 2010. In addition, road transport would also emit 50 percent less particulate matter (PM10) in 2019 than 9 years before. Nice figures, but according to RAI Association and Bovag not enough to achieve the European climate goals.
Bovag and the RAI Association are of the opinion that the climate targets for passenger cars can only be achieved if a broad package of (stimulative) measures is introduced. In addition, there must not only be an eye for electric cars, but must also be directed towards “[…] alternative clean and economical combustion engines, alternative fuels and behavioral change.” In addition, according to Bovag and RAI Association, it is necessary to invest heavily in the electric charging network and in an infrastructure for cars with a fuel cell on board. RAI Association and Bovag are also once again arguing for a system of ‘pay according to use’ in which the kilometer price must be dependent on the ‘environmental characteristics’ of the car.
Emissions
Bovag and RAI Association release even more interesting figures. Between 2010 and 2019, emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from passenger cars fell by 11.3 percent, those from trucks by 52.2 percent. The emissions of particulate matter (PM10) in passenger cars decreased by no less than 81.3 percent in that period. CO2 emissions from total road traffic decreased by 4.2 percent between 2010 and 2019, despite the fact that the total vehicle fleet (passenger cars, commercial vehicles and motorcycles, among others) has increased by ten percent since the end of 2018. The Netherlands is the only EU country with an average CO2 emission per new car of less than 90 grams per kilometre.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl