Press Releases

Iveco’s new Chief Executive Officer, Alfredo Altavilla, took part in the European Logistics Summit 2010 held in Brussels yesterday. The summit, dedicated to the future of transport and the European logistics industry, has been organised by AEL (Alliance for European Logistics), founded by Iveco together with leading companies such as Deutsche Post DHL, Carrefour, Michelin, SAP and others. The Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Mobility and Transport, Siim Kallas, and the CEO of Deutsche Post DHL, Frank Appel, also took part in the summit.

Altavilla made his speech in the session dedicated to the role of technology in supporting a sustainable logistics system.
Iveco’s CEO explained that Diesel engines will continue to play a leading role in European road transport, though they will be progressively joined by alternative solutions like natural gas, electric and hybrid systems (electric Diesel). In recent years, the automotive industry has made substantial investments both to comply with the stringent European emission limits and to promote the development of second-generation renewable fuels. Despite these investments, the improvement in air quality was substantially limited due to obsolete vehicles still in circulation. Suitable policies to renew the vehicles in circulation are therefore necessary to guarantee an efficient reduction in pollutant and CO2 emissions from road transport.

As regards the CO2 emissions of light commercial vehicles up to 3.5 t, the long term target of 140 g/km proposed by the European Parliament’s Environment Committee is not technically feasible at costs sustainable by the market and the target proposed by constructors is 160 g/km.

As regards vehicles with a total weight of more than 3.5 t, fuel consumption and, as a consequence, CO2 emissions, are top-priority elements for transport operators and are decisive factors when buying a vehicle. Therefore, any measures that the legislators intend to implement in this sector must be aimed at reinforcing the competitiveness on the market and not at distorting it. In any case, the only feasible solution to evaluate the efficiency of vehicles, body applications and missions is to develop a simulation tool able to estimate fuel consumption in litres/ton.km (and corresponding CO2 emissions in grams/to.km). Manufacturers have already been working on this project for a long time.

Alfredo Altavilla confirmed Iveco’s commitment to sustainable and eco-friendly transport. Ecology and economy are extremely important factors driving the strategic choices of the whole company.