Nick Carey

(Reuters) – The European Union needs to dramatically toughen up CO2 targets for truckmakers to spur a shift to zero-emission models as current goals do not provide the incentive to do so, European campaign group Transport and Environment (T&E) said on Monday.

The climate group conducted a study titled “Easy Ride” to determine why EU truck CO2 targets for 2020 are not achievable. It found that truckmakers can meet EU’s 2025 emissions targets by improving aerodynamics and fuel economy. However, they are only required to produce a handful of zero emission long-haul trucks.

It was also discovered that many truckmakers already have voluntary agreements for the sale of electric vehicles, which go above EU regulations.

“Truckmakers are clearly able to decarbonise quicker,” T&E’s acting freight director Lucien Mathieu said in a statement. It’s now that they are.

The EU’s current rules allow truckmakers to set a voluntary goal for zero emission vehicles, which is 2%. This target will be in effect from 2025. This target will be revised by the EU.

Based on truckmaker’s voluntary commitments, T&E estimates zero-emission trucks will make up 7% of sales in 2025 and 43% in 2030.

T&E said this shows the EU can set a realistic “but more ambitious” target that at least 30% of sales should be zero-emission trucks by 2028.

A study found that Scania, a Swedish truckmaker, was a leader in the market. Its CO2 emissions were 5.3% less than the average long-haul truck. This is due to aerodynamics.

Renault (PA:) and Iveco, the truck and bus business of Italian-American CNH Industrial (NYSE:), are both laggards, T&E said, with emissions 2.6% and 2.4% above the average respectively.