The European Commission is preparing a CO2 Regulation for heavy commercial vehicles. However, in comparison with passenger cars, the truck market is much more varied – ranging from construction site tippers to long distance trucks. There is such a large number of variations and bodies for heavy commercial vehicles that a "standard solution” makes no sense in relation to CO2. Trucks vary tremendously in their size, weight, volume, applications, mileage and conditions of use, which makes it difficult to generalise. There are good reasons why the CO2 emissions from heavy commercial vehicles – in contrast to passenger cars and light commercial vehicles – are still not recorded in full, even today. In addition, for many years the transport industry has already had to attach the greatest importance to the most efficient consumption – after all, 30 to 40 per cent of total expenditure goes on fuel. This means that the commercial vehicle industry has also regarded development of especially efficient vehicles as a priority for many years. Since the pressure towards ever lower consumption thus comes from the market itself, the question arises of whether a CO2 Regulation for heavy trucks makes any sense at all.
The 64th IAA Commercial Vehicles, which will take place in Hannover from 20 to 27 September 2012, is devoting a lot of space to this topic. The IAA symposium "CO2 reduction in freight traffic” will take a close look at the discussion surrounding CO2 emissions from heavy commercial vehicles and examine the issues from a wide range of viewpoints, such as the perspective of the regulatory authorities, companies in the commercial vehicle industry and of course also from the customer’s point of view.
The symposium will be held on Monday, 24 September 2012, from 10.00 am to 2.30 pm, in Room 1A of the Convention Center (CC) on the Hannover trade show grounds. It is being organised by the trade magazine "lastauto omnibus,” which belongs to the publishers ETM-Verlag in Stuttgart, and by the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), the organiser of the IAA. Dr Kay Lindemann, Managing Director of the VDA, will open the event and provide an introduction to the topic. Bernd Maierhofer, Executive Board member at MAN Truck & Bus
AG, Munich, will speak on "New technological developments in heavy commercial vehicles.” Roland Klement, Board Member for research and development at Schmitz Cargobull AG, Horstmar, will examine "New technological developments in trailers and bodies.” This will be followed by Heiner Rogge, Executive Director of the German Freight Forwarders and Logistics Operators, Bonn, with a talk about "Trends in saving CO2 and fuel from the viewpoint of the transport and logistics companies.”
In addition Philip Owen, Head of Unit 2 of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Climate Action, a high-ranking representative from Brussels will also be present. He will speak at the IAA symposium on the topic of "CO2 emissions from heavy commercial vehicles – options for political action". Then Dr Manfred Schuckert, Senior Manager S/RC, Daimler AG, Stuttgart, will cover "Existing and upcoming CO2 regulations for heavy commercial vehicles – spotlight on the USA and Japan.”
There will also be a panel discussion intended to formulate policy recommendations, with not only Maierhofer and Owen, but also Matthias Groote, MEP, Brussels, Prof. Karlheinz Schmidt, Secretary General of the BGL, Frankfurt/Main, and Dr (hon.) Bernard Krone, Chairman of the Advisory Board of Bernard Krone Holding GmbH & Co. KG, Spelle. The entire event will be hosted by Thomas Rosenberger, editor-in-chief of the trade magazine "lastauto omnibus.”