Eight leading European manufacturers of truck trailers have filed appeals with the European Court of Justice (ECJ) against Regulation (EU) 2024/1610. This regulation, since July 2024, also requires manufacturers of semi-trailers and other trailers to achieve CO₂ reductions, even though the vehicles themselves do not emit emissions.
The companies criticize the underlying methodology of the EU simulation tool "VECTO-Trailer" (VECTO: Vehicle Energy Consumption Calculation Tool) as impractical and warn of serious consequences for transport efficiency, climate targets, and employment. The VECTO tool requires inputs of trailer dimensions, tire specifications, and weights as well as the selection of additional parameters, and then provides a CO₂ value for the trailer in combination with a standard tractor unit.
"A tool that simulates CO₂ savings, although more trucks are on the road in reality,
runs counter to the climate goals. We need real efficiency gains in the overall system rather than modeled pseudo-solutions. The regulation in its current form endangers not only the climate targets but also locations, competitive conditions, and more than 70,000 jobs. Therefore we see no other option but to take legal action," says the spokesperson for the Interest Group, Gero Schulze Isfort.
The trailer and body manufacturers have long criticized the VECTO tool as existentially threatening and at the same time out of touch with reality. Unter anderem im Rahmen der CONFERENCE DAYS 2024 erklärte beispielsweise der Hersteller Krone die Auswirkungen auf den Transport.
The eight-company Interest Group had already filed a nullity action against central articles of the Regulation with the European Court (General Court). The court rejected the
action on the grounds that there was no individual concern.
CO₂ Reduction for semi-trailers and looming penalties
The regulation requires a CO₂ reduction of ten percent for semi-trailers and seven and a half percent for other trailers. From 2030, non-compliance could incur annual penalties of €4,250 per vehicle and per gram of CO₂ per tonne-kilometre. According to industry calculations, this could cause trailer prices to rise by as much as 40 percent. In particular, small and medium-sized manufacturers see their economic viability and more than 70,000 jobs at risk.
VECTO leads to lower payload, more empty runs and higher total emissions
The criticism is mainly directed at the VECTO-Trailer simulation results, which positively assess theoretical improvements such as reduced heights or weight reductions without considering real-world consequences for transport practice.
In the manufacturers' assessment, this leads in practice to lower payload, more empty trips, and thus higher total emissions. They point to already achieved efficiency gains through aerodynamics, lightweight construction, rolling-resistance optimization, and the use of modern axle technologies.
Therefore, the companies are calling for the abolition of the simulation tool, a moratorium on sanction payments, and the crediting of emissions-free tractor units toward the trailer targets. The plaintiffs include Fliegl, Kögel, Krone, Langendorf, Schmitz Cargobull, Schwarzmüller, System Trailers and Wecon, which account for over 80 percent of the relevant registrations in Germany and over 70 percent in Europe. They receive support from the Association of the Automobile Industry (VDA), which apparently regards the CO₂ targets as technically unattainable and economically harmful. (Source: Interest Group of eight truck trailer manufacturers)
