The European Commission has proposed a targeted amendment to the Regulation setting cO₂ emission performance standards for new cars and vans. The amendment introduces a flexibility measure with their CO₂ targets between 2025 and 2027.

This proposal was announced as part of the Commission’s Industrial Action Plan for the European automotive sector, adopted on 5 March 2025. This followed the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of the Automotive Industry launched by President von der Leyen on 30 January 2025 and involving an open public consultation and multiple discussions and engagement with industry leaders, social partners and stakeholders to address the most pressing challenges facing the sector.

The proposed flexibility measure allows manufacturers’ compliance with the CO₂ targets for 2025, 2026 and 2027 to be assessed over the entire three-year period averaging their performance, rather than annually. This approach allows manufacturers to balance any excessive annual emissions by outperforming the target in the remaining year(s).

The EC suggested that this additional flexibility will help safeguard the industry’s capacity to invest in the clean transition, while maintaining the 2025 target and keeping the industry on track for the next round of emissions reductions.

The EU-wide targets intend to make the EU’s transport system more sustainable and put road transport on a firm path to zero-emission mobility in 2050.

The Commission called on the co-legislators to reach an agreement on this amendment without delay to ensure predictability and certainty for the automotive industry and investors.

The ACEA (European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association) called the proposal for a three-year averaging a step in the right direction, aligning decarbonization goals with real-world market and geopolitical challenges. The proposal offers much-needed breathing room for car and van makers, ACEA said, but added that this must be complimented by meaningful demand incentives and widespread charging infrastructure deployment in order to address the fundamental hurdles to the transformation.

As the latest market data shows, the demand for zero-emission vehicles is still far from where it needs to be with the market share of BEVs at just 15%.