In September 2019, we received a customer-oriented idea for a service that could contribute to reducing traffic emissions, and would be in high demand. The prototype of the Clean Vehicles Wizard CVW was completed by the summer and it was implemented through interviews with cities and municipalities.
The pilot was launched together with the municipalities and cities. We want to thank all the partners involved, the Northern Growth Zone, the Association of Finnish Municipalities, and Traficom, for your support. Piloting of the service began in the fall of 2020 and lasted about six months. The pilots ended in March and now the CVW service is open to the public and private sectors.
EU Clean Vehicles Directive – CVD
We have heard the same comment about the upcoming Clean Vehicles Directive, “can’t know”.
Now on the table of Parliament and Government of Finland is a draft law that is due to enter into force on the second day of August 2021. The law seeks to strengthen the previous Clean Vehicles Directive, due to its ineffectiveness.
“The law aims to promote emission reductions in transport by increasing the share of zero- and low-emission vehicles in public procurement. The law would provide for minimum percentages of zero and low emission vehicles for contracting entities for two procurement periods. The minimums would be set for three vehicle categories: passenger cars / light commercial vehicles, lorries, and buses. Minimum rates for municipal procurement would be differentiated to take account of regional differences. The supervisory authority would be the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency. ”
We aim to meet the requirements of the law on traffic and vehicle emissions with the CVW tool.
The Clean Vehicles Wizard is designed to meet the need for vehicle data to be better available, manageable, reported, analyzed, and above all, for operators to be able to reduce emissions. This means accurate and careful reporting by the public sector and companies on the current vehicle fleet and, in particular, on the acquisition of new vehicles to meet legal requirements.
We at Vediafi are confident that environmental awareness will increase. In the future, reporting on vehicle fleet emissions will come to the fore and more accurate kilometer-based “real emissions” will need to be demonstrated. Transparency about emissions and their root causes will become more transparent, thus improving the understanding of vehicle utilization, consumption, and emissions.
The roadmap for fossil-free traffic is starting to form up as we move towards cleaner environmental reporting. In addition to traffic, similar reporting is also coming to construction sites through Green deal agreements and to companies as promoted by responsibility reporting.
The first reports on the Clean Vehicles Directive will probably have to be submitted for national reporting as early as spring 2024, so there is no time to waste. And note that the directive will come into force on 2.8.2021.
The pilot was eye opening
In some cities in the summer of 2020 there was still a wait-and-see attitude and in the others, the issue had not even been properly considered. We were in contact with the 30 largest cities in Finland, from which we got a good amount to join in the pilot.
In just over six months, we got to look at about a thousand vehicles from cities. Through many remote meetings and discussions, we sparred cities while improving the CVW tool to meet desired needs related to tool functionalities.
We gave the half-year pilot reports to the cities in March and the results are not flattering for the vehicle fleets. We based our calculations on available national vehicle register data as well as self-extracted open vehicle data from around the world. Processed from data from more than 6.5 million vehicles from several data sources, CVW’s database provides accurate vehicle data for more than 100,000 different car models, providing a good basis for emissions calculation and monitoring, as well as decision support and facilitation.
Values used in the report
Vehicles and vehicle groups were compared under the forthcoming EU Clean Vehicles Directive. 50 g CO2 / km and compared to the overall regional average of 150 gCO2 / km. With heavy vehicles, clean vehicles are classified on the basis of propulsion, as defined in the Directive.
Emission reduction targets
Summary and conclusions
The CVW tool provides factual information on the actual environmental impact of transport equipment, rather than averages and random spot checks. In this way, the management of fleets is transparent and reflects the real situation. Procurements can get real-time information on the actual state of the vehicle fleet and build a sensible data-based strategy for future procurements. The future acquisition of vehicles will be based on the actual verification of the cleanliness of the vehicle with accurate information to be provided.
The definition of a clean vehicle under the CVD is strict and places severe demands on the public sector in a very fast timeframe. Transparency throughout the procurement lifecycle is improving and CVW is a great tool for this.
The CVW tool made it possible to look at the cities’ vehicle fleets and find the average emission values.
The image below shows the average CO2 emissions of the all vehicles in pilot cities fleets fed to the system. The average emission value is 154.15 g / km.
The need for new, low-emission vehicles in the future is clear. The current fleet is outdated and emissions are high, and both the Clean Vehicles Directive and the city-specific emission reduction targets will promote this.
Fighting against transport emissions and climate change requires awareness of vehicles, as well as extensive action in both the public and private sectors.
The Clean Vehicles Directive (CVD) will enter into force on 2 August 2021. In Finland, the procured new vehicles must be reported in Hilma in a post-notification.
