The CO2 evaluation tool will help their customers to choose the most fuel-efficient vehicle specification, involving issues such as engine-gearbox combination, aerodynamic features and tyre specification. The tool will also serve to provide stakeholders-at-large with essential insight in the complexity and variety of road transport.

The calculation methodology promoted by ACEA uses computer simulation based on real-life tests with trucks and buses in a number of categories, ranging from city buses and garbage trucks, to delivery vehicles and long-haul transport. Emissions are calculated in grammes of CO2 per tonne-kilometre, cubic metre-kilometre of goods or passenger-kilometre to properly reflect the purpose and usage of the vehicle concerned.

The initiative marks an important step in realising the commercial vehicle industry's "Vision 2020", announced in Hanover in 2008, pledging to further reduce CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020.

'Our industry fully supports the common objective to reduce CO2 emissions, and by sharing our expertise with the market as well as with policy makers, we will arrive at ambitious results,' said Leif Johansson, chairman of the Commercial Vehicle Board of ACEA and president & CEO of Volvo Group, making a particular reference to the European Commission's recently voiced intention to adopt policy measures to reduce CO2 emissions from commercial vehicles.

'It is important that legislators support our efforts with a policy approach that matches the reality of commercial goods and passenger transport. Measures should, furthermore, be globally harmonised. Our industry operates globally, and climate change is also a global challenge,' added Mr Johansson.