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The average CO2 emissions from new vans registered in Europe fell steadily between 2019 and 2023, resulting in a reduction of 11.4% during the period. In 2024, just before stricter 2025 targets came into effect, a small reversal in the downward trend was observed. This is largely due to a decrease of two percentage points in the share of battery electric vehicles (BEV) in all new van registrations in the European Union. Almost all van manufacturers met their binding targets in 2024.

Figure 1. Average CO2 emissions from new vans and fleet-wide CO2 targets

Domestic transport is the sector with the highest greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union, accounting for one quarter of the EU’s total emissions. To achieve climate neutrality, the European Green Deal calls for a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from transport by 2050.

To help achieve these targets, Regulation (EU) 2019/631 sets fleet-wide targets for the average CO2 emissions from all new vans in Europe. These targets get progressively stricter over time. For the years 2020-2024 the target was 130g CO2/km (New European Driving Cycle (NEDC)), equivalent to around 189.9g CO2/km (Worldwide Harmonised Light vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP)).

From 2025 onwards, stricter EU-wide fleet targets (WLTP) apply: 153.9g/km until 2029, 90.6g/km from 2030 to 2034 and 0g/km from 2035. Based on these fleet-wide targets, specific emission targets are calculated and are legally binding for each manufacturer, either individually or as part of a pool (see below).

In 2024, the average CO2 emissions of new vans registered in the EU increased slightly by 2.3% compared to 2023, reaching 184.9g CO2/km. This small increase is mainly due to a slight decrease in the share of battery electric vehicle (BEV) registrations, which accounted for 6.2% of new vans in 2024, compared to 8.2% in 2023. Diesel vans continued to dominate the market, representing 87% of all new registrations.

Figure 2. Average CO2 performance of pools and individual vans manufacturers in the EU, Iceland, Norway in 2024

Specific emission targets are set annually for each manufacturer or pool - i.e. a group of manufacturers acting together for compliance purposes. These targets depend on the average mass of the manufacturer's or pool's new vehicle fleet in the given year, meaning that manufacturers of heavier vans have higher emissions targets than manufacturers of lighter vans. Manufacturers or pools that are responsible for fewer than 22,000 new van registrations per year may benefit from a derogation target.

Among the pools required to meet a CO2 emission target, the Stellantis pool achieved the lowest average CO2 emissions in 2024 (173g CO2/km), followed by the Renault-Nissan pool (176g CO2/km) and the Volkswagen pool (187g CO2/km) (see Figure 2). Among the individual manufacturers with more than 22,000 registrations, Toyota Motor Europe (181g CO2/km) and Mercedes-Benz AG (202g CO2/km) remained well below the target. All the above-mentioned pools and individual manufacturers covered 94% of the new van fleet in 2024.