Brussels, Belgium, There are growing calls for more infrastructure to help de-carbonising European road transport.
EU member states are being urged to agree ambitious targets for electric recharging and hydrogen refuelling infrastructure.
The IRU, representing commercial road transport operators, together with ACEA, representing vehicle manufacturers, Transport & Environment, a lobby group , and Hydrogen Europe, an association of companies and public sector authorities, have signed a letter to EU leaders calling for ambitious and timely targets for the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure.
The four organisations are all concerned that targets set by the European Commission’s proposal for a regulation on alternative fuels infrastructure may be substantially weakened during the legislative process.
In a letter to transport ministers from the 27 Member States they said: “Battery-electric heavy-duty vehicles are already beginning to hit the market, with increasingly wider offerings also for long-haul operations expected soon. Therefore, it is crucial to have ambitious mandatory TEN-T targets from 2025 at the latest.
“Targets should also be extended to safe and secure parking areas from 2025 onwards. Equally important, hydrogen refuelling stations have to be fully deployed along both the TEN-T core and comprehensive road networks with sufficient minimum daily capacities by meeting the AFIR targets at the latest by 2030, while ensuring that the pre-2030 ambition matches the roll-out of hydrogen-fuelled heavy-duty vehicles in the second half of this decade.”
Raluca Marian, EU advocacy Ddrector, IRU, said: “Road transport operators are concerned that policy makers may not give them a fair chance to play their role in decarbonising the EU. A solid infrastructure for charging/fuelling zero-emission vehicles, evenly spread across the EU, is a basic enabler for transport operators to do the shift. If infrastructure building is delayed, how can transport operators buy the new vehicles starting to hit the market?”
