Sefcovic: One in Three Cars in EU Should Be Emission-Free by 2030

Bratislava, January 4 (TASR) – By 2030 one in three vehicles in the EU should run on a clean engine, stated European Commission Vice-president for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic in Bratislava on Thursday, marking the opening of the first rapid charging station in central and eastern Europe in the shopping centre Avion.

“We want the EU to make sure that by 2030 every third car driving on European roads will be clean, which means driven by electricity, a hydrogen-powered engine or having a very strong hybrid component. This concerns mainly cities in which clean engines, i.e. not emitting any harmful emissions, should be used,” said Sefcovic.

According to the EC vice-president, this measure is important both for people’s health and Slovakia’s global technological leadership. “Currently some 400,000 people die prematurely in the EU just because of diseases caused by excessive emissions in our cities,” he said.

“If Slovakia wants to continue producing the best, top-quality and safest cars in the world, as is the case now, we have to make this important technological step and realise that this trend is unstoppable,” he added.

Sefcovic further noted that the so-called Clean Mobility package was adopted by the Commission several months ago, highlighting all the parameters needed for electromobility in the next decade. “At the same time, we stressed in the package how important it is to accelerate the construction of clean-driving infrastructure. We need 800,000 charging stations in Europe, and we only have 200,000 of them at the moment. It’s clear that we need to speed up the construction of the stations,” he said, adding that as much as €900 million has been allocated to this effect by 2020.