Switzerland adopts CO2 regulation for new vehicles
With the new target values, Switzerland is adopting the CO2 regulations of the European Union. With one important difference: Swiss importers are to achieve these targets on their own, whereas in the EU a fleet value per brand is formed across all member states.
With the new target values, Switzerland is adopting the CO2 regulations of the European Union. With one important difference: Swiss importers are to achieve these targets on their own, whereas in the EU a fleet value per brand is formed across all member states - even the non-EU countries Norway and Iceland can be counted. However, the local vehicle market is special due to its higher purchasing power and special topographical requirements. On average, new passenger cars in Switzerland have more power than in neighboring countries, and no EU member has a similarly high all-wheel drive market share.
This drives down the CO2-average and ensures that Switzerland even has a higher value than Germany (2017: CH 134.1g CO2/km; D 127.1g; EU 118.5g), it says on the page of www.auto.swiss
"Supercredits" for plug-in hybrids
In order to take these market-specific characteristics into account to some extent, the Federal Council has, as it did when introducing the limit value of 130g CO2/km for passenger cars in 2013 (see table). On the one hand, these regulate what proportion of an importer's vehicle fleet must reach the new target value in one year. This phasing-in procedure is called "phasing-in". Secondly, particularly efficient vehicles with a CO2-emissions of less than 50 grams per kilometer for several years. These factors, which mainly affect electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, are called "supercredits.
Phasing-in: proportion of the most efficient vehicles used to calculate the fleet average.
Supercredits: Multiple credits for vehicles with a CO2-emissions of less than 50g/km to the fleet average.
Even if the Swiss phasing-in 2020 starts minimally lower than in the EU, the implementation modalities are far from sufficient to compensate for the market differences. As Switzerland is now at a higher level than EU countries, it will have to reduce CO2-emissions in the same period of time. With the same effort as in the EU, Switzerland will therefore not reach the average value of 95 grams until 2025.
Determination of limit values remains a challenge
Under the title "10/20" auto-schweiz is issuing an ambitious industry target for the electrification of motorized private transport. By 2020, every tenth new passenger car registered in Switzerland or Liechtenstein should be an electric car or plug-in hybrid. The target is extremely ambitious, given that the share of e-vehicles in 2018 was just 3.2 percent. Only by achieving this target, as well as growth in other alternative drive systems such as gas or hybrid cars, will it be possible to come close to meeting the CO2 limit of 95 grams per kilometer on average that will apply from 2020. However, a prerequisite for "10/20" is the creation of favorable framework conditions for electromobility, including a rapid and massive expansion of the publicly available charging and filling station infrastructure for alternative fuels.
The introduction of the new limit value for light commercial vehicles presents a particular challenge. Here, too, Switzerland finds itself in a special position, explains Andreas Burgener: "According to the figures for 2018, the Swiss fleet of vans and light semitrailers emitted an average of 183.3 grams of CO2 per kilometer, the highest value in Europe; the EU average was 158.1 grams. The difference is explained not least by the performance-based heavy vehicle fee LSVA, which favors transport with smaller, lighter vehicles over truck transport." Therefore, commercial vehicle regulations must take into account the Swiss situation, Burgener said. "High penalties for our customers are of no use, because otherwise, like cars, the vehicles will cross the border free of penalties and taxes even after six months." This would serve neither Swiss tax revenues nor the environment, he said.
