Japan tightens CO2 vehicle standards for 2030
The Japanese government has set new standards for the fleet consumption of car manufacturers until 2030. Car manufacturers must reduce the consumption and thus the CO2 emissions of their vehicles sold by 32 per cent by 2030 compared to 2016 – to an average of around 3.9 litres of gasoline per 100 kilometres.
Car manufacturers will be forced to sell more electric and hybrid cars in order to achieve this goal. At the same time, they will also have to reduce the share of their combustion engines in total sales. In Japanese calculations, new cars would then have to travel an average of 25.4 kilometres with one litre of fuel, or the equivalent of 3.9 litres.
With the new emission values, the Japanese government wants to catch up with the EU and China in the transformation to zero-emission vehicles. According to the Ministry of Industry, only 24,000 electric cars were registered in 2017, which corresponds to a market share of 0.5 per cent. According to plans, this figure will rise to 20 to 30 per cent by 2030, which would correspond to around one million electric cars and plug-in hybrids in today’s market.
In Japan, only Mitsubishi with the i-MiEV and Nissan with the Leaf have built electric cars in significant numbers, while other Japanese carmakers have long neglected purely electric cars: Industry giant Toyota has relied on hybrid technology for years. A joint venture founded by Toyota, Mazda and the supplier Denso is now developing electric drives. Subaru, Suzuki and Hino have also joined the joint venture. Toyota plans that by 2030 ten per cent of its sales will come from electric cars and fuel cell vehicles.
Yasuhiro Matsuyama, director-general of the industry ministry’s Energy Conservation and Renewable Energy Department admitted the regulations would be tough, but important as the country may be in danger of falling behind European and Chinese regulations, which have pushed consumers more in the direction of renewable energies and new energy vehicles: “The goals may look ambitious even from an international perspective, but it’s important in order to take the lead on environmental measures.”
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