Carbon pricing crucial to deliver on greening transport, Volvo boss says

(EurActiv, 8 Apr 2024) The implementation of the EU’s carbon pricing scheme for road transport is crucial to drive the business case for electric and hydrogen trucks, Martin Lundstedt, CEO of the Volvo Group, told Euractiv in an interview.

While transport emissions in the EU have increased by 26% from 1990 to 2023, making the sector the ‘problem child’ of the green transition, the EU aims to cut emissions by 90% by 2050, in line with its climate agenda.

On Wednesday (10 April), the European Parliament is expected to adopt new rules for trucks and buses, which will drastically reduce the number of diesel trucks that can be sold in Europe, obliging truck makers to increase the share of zero-emission vehicles such as battery-electric or hydrogen trucks.

“We see it as tough, but we see it as feasible,” Lundstedt, CEO of the Volvo Group, which mainly produces trucks and buses, said about the new targets, adding that “we have the equipment available”.

“But the reality is that you can have equipment available, but you need to have infrastructure, you need to have grid capacity, you need to have the green energy, and you need to have the TCO [total costs of ownership] parity, […] and you need to have a supply chain,” Lundstedt said.

“And every of these factors are times each other because if any one of them are zero it’s zero.”

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EurActiv, 8 Apr 2024: Carbon pricing crucial to deliver on greening transport, Volvo boss says