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European Commission recommends reducing emissions from new cars
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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The European Commission proposes to significantly reduce emissions from new cars by 2020.
The corresponding proposal to the EU Council and the European Parliament was approved today.
The new proposals envisage reducing CO2 emissions into the atmosphere from new passenger cars to 95 g per 1 km from 135.7 g per 1 km in 2011 by 2020. CO2 emissions into the atmosphere from new minivans are expected to be reduced to 147 g per 1 km from 181.4 g per 1 km in 2010 by 2020.
As the European Commission clarified, the targets for the level of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere from new cars from 2020 are already enshrined in EU legislation, but require further implementation, including by clarifying existing regulations.
The current proposals from the European Commission envisage changes to two EU legal acts and will be submitted to the European Parliament and the Council for consideration.
The European Commission is convinced that the new targets for car manufacturers are quite achievable. At the same time, according to the Commission's estimates, if the new targets for CO2 emissions into the atmosphere are achieved, in the first year of use a new car from 2020 will save its owner up to 340 euros on fuel costs, or from 2904 to 3836 euros over the entire average period of its use, which is estimated at 13 years.
For minivans, the level of fuel cost savings in the first year of use is estimated at 400 euros, or 3364-4564 euros over the entire service life.
Overall, according to European Commission experts, European consumers will save up to 30 billion euros a year on fuel costs.