The Government will review the DGT labels

The government will review the current DGT labeling system to include CO2 emissions as an additional criterion. This is established in an amendment by Sumar, ERC, Bildu, and BNG included in the Sustainable Mobility Law. When this regulation comes into force, the government will have 12 months to submit a report updating the system.

The intention is, taking into account the technological evolution of vehicles, to "address the deficiencies detected in terms of pollutants" since, except for 100% electric vehicles, all other cars emit CO2. This pollutant is one of the causes of global warming.

Two major criticisms

The initiative is not new. The system was introduced in 2016, but it has been criticized for years for two reasons in particular.

On the one hand, the granting of the ZERO label to plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) with an electric range of over 40 km, but with combustion engines producing hundreds of horsepower that pollute heavily when the battery is discharged, is being questioned . Furthermore, there is no control over whether the car is plugged in regularly. The ZERO label is the one that applies to pure battery models and the one that comes with the most privileges.

Non-retroactive changes

On the other hand, so-called mild hybrids are classified as ECO simply because they have a tiny bit of additional electrical assistance, regardless of the main combustion engine.

Hence, the proposal is to downgrade them. For example, moving PHEVs to the ECO level and assigning MHEVs a new label with fewer benefits. In any case, the changes can never be retroactive: that is, all cars purchased before the new classification came into effect will retain the label assigned to them along with the current one.

It comes from far away

Both the DGT and the government are in favor of the changes. In fact, the government pledged to introduce them in the automobile aid plan it presented in 2020. However, they have been delayed at the request of the sector, which claims that they would harm registrations when the market is still far from pre-pandemic levels.

Added to these modifications is the drastic change in the approval of plug-in hybrid vehicles that will come into effect in the EU next year. These new tests will dramatically increase their emissions figures. Even for the new models just coming onto the market, with electric ranges that easily exceed 100 km and even double that figure, by charging the battery frequently, they could cover up to 90% of their annual mileage without using a drop of fuel. In other words, without polluting.

The study will be conducted within the framework of an inter-ministerial working group comprising the Ministries of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, the Interior, Industry and Tourism, Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, and the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Business. The study will include consultation with the autonomous communities.