Energy efficiency

The 2012 Energy Efficiency Directive aims to decrease the Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) in Europe by reducing the primary energy consumption. To reach the 2020 targets, the directive introduced an obligation on energy distributors or retail energy sales companies to achieve 1,5% energy savings per year through the implementation of energy efficiency measures.

In some countries, the Energy Efficiency Directive allows to take into account energy saved in transport towards the 1,5% objective listed in Article 7. As of year 2020, also higher performing fuels used in transport could be taken into account towards the 1.5% in those countries within the so-called Energy Efficiency Obligation Schemes.

Higher performing fuels offer benefits to the environment as they decrease air pollution and GHG emissions, and to consumers, allowing cars to run longer distances with the same amount of fuel and preventing engine damages. At the same time, as hybrid cars account for 96.8 % of the yearly fleet mileage of electric vehicles, higher efficient fuels would enable the thermal part of the engine to be more efficient and clean burning, thus helping the transition to electromobility in the future.