Call for tender
Time-limit for receipt of tenders: 8/09/2011
Clean and energy efficient vehicles have an important role to play to achieve the EU policy objectives of improving energy efficiency, reducing CO2 emissions, and pollutant emissions. The Directive on the Promotion of Clean and Energy Efficient Road Transport Vehicles (2009/33/EC) (“Clean Vehicle Directive”) is expected to contribute to accelerate a broad market introduction of environmentally-friendly vehicles. It addresses purchases of vehicles
for public transport services. The Clean Vehicle Directive introduces for the first time sustainability obligations into public procurement law for the whole EU. All purchase decisions of public authorities and private operators on vehicles for public transport services have to take into account now the impact of their energy consumption, CO2 emissions and pollutant emissions affecting air quality, integrated over the entire lifetime of vehicles. Thus, the real costs to be encountered over the lifetime operation of vehicles are anticipated, giving relative advantages (lower lifetime costs) to less polluting and energy consuming vehicles. The obligation extends to all purchases of road transport vehicles by public authorities or by transport operators charged with public service obligations. The Directive defines a methodology for the calculation of lifetime cost for energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and pollutant emissions of vehicles:
Lifetime cost of energy consumption =
Cost per unit of energy x energy consumption per km x total lifetime mileage
Lifetime cost of CO2 / pollutant emissions =
Cost per kg of emissions x kg of emissions per km x total lifetime mileage
The integration of purchase price of a vehicle and its lifetime operational cost for energy consumption, CO2 emissions and pollutant emissions changes the economic assessment considerably. Operational costs can dominate for high consumption/emission level vehicles. Competition then shifts from the pure vehicle price to its long-term performance. As a result, more energy efficient and cleaner vehicle technology can be more economic over its operational lifetime despite a higher initial purchase price. Internalising operational cost into the purchase decision therefore is a powerful tool to support innovation and accelerate market penetration of innovative higher performance technologies. The Clean Vehicle Directive has a technology-neutral approach and is performance oriented towards energy efficiency and low CO2 and pollutant emissions. The inclusion of lifetime cost for energy consumption, CO2 and pollutant emissions in the criteria for purchase decisions, however, can give clear advantages for clean and energy efficient technologies.
A web based internet portal has been opened by the Commission to facilitate the implementation of the Clean Vehicle Directive, as already set out in the Directive. This Clean Vehicle Portal is conceived to support public procurement of vehicles as well as private users in their decisions on car purchases. The portal provides the consumption and emission data of vehicles, as required for the calculation of lifetime cost. A chat room like facility allows public procurers to team up to joint procurement calls. This should allow aligning and bundling purchases of vehicles to achieve economies of scale with larger volumes. The portal also informs on public procurement legislation and specific programmes and
incentives for the purchase and operation of clean and energy efficient vehicles, on EU level and in the different Member States, on national, regional, and local level. Article 10 of the Clean Vehicle Directive requires bi-annual monitoring and review reporst on the application of the Clean Vehicle Directive and the actions taken by individual Member
States to promote the purchase of clean and energy efficient vehicles, including possible proposals on appropriate adjustments and further actions. The first report is due by end of 2012.
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