News
17/01/2019

Opinion: EU needs clean vehicle procurement rules to boost e-mobility in cities

In October 2018, Environment and Transport ministers signed the “Graz declaration” on clean transport, marking “the beginning of a new era” in which all parties would “work towards a green deal for a new mobility in Europe”. But are they dragging their feet on one of the most important EU dossiers to boost clean mobility in European cities?

The window of opportunity for getting a deal on the Clean Vehicles Directive (CVD) is closing while the need for such a deal has never been so high: air pollution is responsible for 400,000 premature deaths every year, and greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector are still on the rise.

The future of the European e-mobility industry is at stake. Postponing the transition to electric vehicles would only help international competitors become more dominant. For example, while patting ourselves on the back for having roughly 1,600 e-buses on the road in Europe today, the Chinese city of Shenzhen completely electrified its fleet of 16,000 buses in 2018. Overall, China operates close to 400,000 electric buses, and exports them across many markets.

Read the full article on Euractiv.