Impact Community

U.S. President Obama on May 19th – for the first time in history – set in motion a new national policy aimed at both increasing fuel economy and reducing greenhouse gas pollution for all new cars and trucks sold in the United States. With stricter emission rules are also on the horizon in the EU and around the world makers of turbochargers, advanced lithium-ion batteries, electric motors for cars and trucks and light materials such as aluminium and new plastics are set to benefit.

The new U.S. standards will cover model years 2012-2016, and will require an average fuel economy standard of 35.5 mpg (6.6 liters per 100km) in 2016 (39 mpg for cars (6 liters per 100km), 30 mpg for trucks (7.8 liters per 100km)), or approximately 250 grams CO2/mile (155 grams C02/km).

European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, said a few days before the U.S. announcement that eradicating greenhouse gases from power stations and cars, trucks and aviation must be Europe’s next policy move to tackle climate change. “We need to come up with concrete policies to decarbonise our electricity supply and transport fuels and to transform the grid,”. See more on the EU plans here.

The overall development towards stricter emission standards are seen as favouring hybrid and electric vehicles and will likely cause increased demand for lighter materials such as aluminium and new plastics as well as turbochargers and electric motors for cars and trucks already under development. The producers of lithium—a mineral used in batteries that power new generation vehicles—could be the big winners according to this piece of news and this one.