Information about fuel consumption and CO2 emissions of newly manufactured trucks will now be completely public. This is the result of a EU regulation that entered into force on January 1 this year. It requires manufacturers to report exhaust emissions. The Vehicle Energy Consumption Calculation Tool (VECTO) is developed for heavy duty vehicle CO2 certification purposes. And although the aggregate database will only be available in a year, new guidelines oblige producers to disclose the collected data to people interested in buying a specific vehicle.
The EEA will publish a report on a yearly basis. Perhaps what will be more relevant for carriers is the fact that when they purchase a vehicle from a dealer, the manufacturer will be obliged to provide a VECTO certificate for that specific vehicle – containing the VECTO information that can be made publically available. This will allow carriers to compare on a vehicle-by-vehicle basis, including between brands, which should drive competition” informs Acacia Smith, manager of environmental protection at the International Road Transport Union (IRU) in an email to trans.INFO.
Information on vehicle performance in terms of fuel consumption and CO2 emissions will be available to the public and free of charge in a database managed by the European Environment Agency (EEA), operating on behalf of the EU. The database will contain information on each vehicle manufactured in the passing year. For example, data on trucks manufactured in 2019 will be available in the database published next year. Thanks to this, the carrier will be able to compare the performance of specific models. This option will be possible only in 2020.
It should be noted that sensitive data, including vehicle identification numbers and brand names of parts manufacturers, will not be published in the database due to the protection of personal data and fair competition.
Tool that determines fuel consumption
VECTO is a simulation tool that allows you to calculate and determine the fuel consumption, carbon dioxide emissions and energy consumption of newly manufactured heavy vehicles before registering, selling or allowing them to be sold in the European Union. VECTO aims to make it possible to objectively compare truck performance and encourage EU models that use less fuel.
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