Skip to main content

Clean engines for industrial use

The European Parliament Environment Committee has voted on the proposal to amend Directive 2009/33/EU on the promotion of clean and energy-efficient road transport vehicles, the so-called Clean Vehicles Directive. However all amendments calling for inclusion of construction machinery into the scope of the CVD were rejected. This is in line with argumentation and awareness-raising actions undertaken by CECE, the body representing construction equipment manufacturers in Europe.
October 12, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
The European Parliament Environment Committee has voted on the proposal to amend Directive 2009/33/EU on the promotion of clean and energy-efficient road transport vehicles, the so-called Clean Vehicles Directive.


However all amendments calling for inclusion of construction machinery into the scope of the CVD were rejected. This is in line with argumentation and awareness-raising actions undertaken by 3399 CECE, the body representing construction equipment manufacturers in Europe.

CECE Secretary General Riccardo VIAGGI said: “We have no reservation on the emission reduction goals the EU has set itself and the construction machinery industry is proud of the significant advancements it has made in this regard. However, the Clean Vehicles Directive is tailored to the transport sector and is not an appropriate instrument to cover mobile machines such as those manufactured by CECE member companies.”

It is fundamental to remind that construction machinery work as part of a variety of different processes and are not intended to carry people or goods from A to B. Therefore construction equipment cannot and will not be considered as road transport such as passenger cars, buses, coaches and trucks. Regarding electrification in worksites, the different situation for recharging infrastructure and limitations on the electrical supply to support the use of purely electrical machinery (on very different power ranges) has to be clearly distinguished from road transport.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Barriers to safety
    April 1, 2021
    All vehicle restraint devices on European roads are – or should be - certified according to the European impact standard EN 1317, implying conformity. But it doesn’t necessarily ensure that the crash barrier will perform its main aim of saving the vehicle occupants’ lives.
  • The Path to Climate-Neutral Road Construction
    October 1, 2023
    Machine manufacturers and construction companies around the globe are currently searching for ways to achieve the goal of climate-neutral construction. The challenge here is to successively reduce emissions of CO2 and other harmful gases (summarized to CO2 equivalents: CO2e) around the world to zero over the coming decades. In the road construction sector, this transformation is inextricably linked to the improvement and further development of production and working processes. In the future, machines and construction materials will also be assessed based on the climate-harmful emissions arising from their production and use. However, the focus should not be on individual machines, but on the entire process leading up to the finished product – a road. Ultimately, the decisive factor is the emissions generated per kilometer of newly built or rehabilitated road – the “CO2e per work done”.
  • EU officials testing fuel-cell Hyundai
    May 4, 2012
    The Hyundai ix35 fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) has been selected by the European Commission-backed Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU) to be used as a demonstration vehicle to test and promote hydrogen fuel cell technology in a real-world environment.As part of the announcement made yesterday at the FCH JU-organised "Joint Technology Initiatives:
  • Europe’s traffic pollution problem causes concern
    December 3, 2012
    The latest data available suggests that traffic pollution is still harmful to health in many parts of Europe. Transport in Europe is responsible for damaging levels of air pollutants and a quarter of EU greenhouse gas emissions. Many of the resulting environmental problems can be addressed by stepping up efforts to meet new EU targets, according to the latest report from the European Environment Agency (EEA). The EEA’s annual report under the Transport and Environment Reporting Mechanism (TERM) assesses the