EU rewards China’s coal power: A study by the Technical University of Munich reveals substantial misdirection in EU automotive regulation

Here is the study (pdf).

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• Purely battery-electric vehicles reduce CO₂ emissions by only 41 percent on average compared to combustion vehicles. Yet the European Commission counts them as 100 percent climate-neutral.
• The reason: EU regulation measures CO₂ emissions only through tailpipe exhaust. Fossil carbon released during a vehicle’s production and through the electricity used to operate it, or not recovered during recycling, is not captured by EU Regulation 2019/631.
• This scientifically indefensible stance by the EU will cause the passenger car sector’s 2030 target of reducing CO₂ emissions by 188 million tons to be missed by more than 100 million tons. Combustion vehicles are expected to still make up 78 percent of the vehicle fleet in 2030.

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If a manufacturer invests in near-CO₂-free steel, a supplier decarbonizes battery production, or a recycling company keeps critical raw materials in the loop, none of that improves the regulation’s metric under the EU’s current rules by a single gram. Regulation that does not capture relevant contributions to decarbonization cannot reward them either. And what it does not reward, industry will not finance at scale.

“The greatest economic and environmental misdirection lies in the fact that the European Commission’s regulation is based exclusively on CO₂ emissions from tailpipe exhaust,” says Prof. Johannes Fottner. “Under this logic, purely battery-electric vehicles are considered climate-neutral. The industry’s diverse efforts to reach climate targets – through green steel or circular economy practices, for instance – go unrewarded as a result.” Europe, he adds, can no longer afford to overlook this emissions reality.

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The researchers therefore propose a life-cycle-based standard for defossilization.

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As one report says, the EU rewards China’s coal power as Europe’s climate rules could end up favoring electric cars from China that are produced with high emissions.

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