The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) strongly supports revising the Weights and Dimensions Directive under the ‘Greening Freight Package’, considering it crucial for promoting the adoption of battery-electric and hydrogen-powered trucks and buses.
In the position paper published yesterday, ACEA outlines several improvements that would enable and support the transition to zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) in the heavy-duty sector, which include, among others:
- Ensuring that the additional weight allowance can be fully allocated to zero-emission motor vehicles. Only if it becomes fully available for motor vehicles will it be possible to accommodate zero-emission powertrains in a wide range of vehicle segments, without sacrificing payload and thereby reducing their competitiveness
- The additional weight allowance will only become fully available if the axle weight of the driven axle is increased by one tonne simultaneously. The proposal to increase this to 12.5 tonnes (from 11.5 tonnes) is a crucial prerequisite, which is necessary to use the additional weight allowance fully. Despite a moderately higher driven axle weight, the overall impact on road wear and tear will be even lower due to inner-vehicle weight distribution adjustments
- The additional length (+0.9 metres) granted to ZEVs is an equally crucial prerequisite to enable a wide range of vehicle segments to transition to zero-emission powertrains swiftly
- Amending vehicle type-approval provisions simultaneously to ensure the Directive effectively incentivises the operation of vehicles with new design parameters
- Retaining the proposal to expand and simplify the use of longer and heavier vehicles and combinations such as the European Modular System (EMS)
- Prioritising swift progress and adoption of the revised Directive
“The proposed revision of the Weights and Dimensions Directive incorporates several ACEA recommendations to better level the playing field with conventionally powered vehicles. However, further improvements are needed to enable the uptake of zero-emission models,” ACEA notes.
ACEA is not the only organisation to criticise the proposed changes to the weights and dimensions directive. As previously reported by Trans.iNFO, several rail organisations have also sounded the alarm in a joint letter, calling the proposed changes „impractical and ineffective”.