Annexes to COM(2022)515 - Quality of petrol and diesel fuel used for road transport in the EU (Reporting year 2020) - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2022)515 - Quality of petrol and diesel fuel used for road transport in the EU (Reporting year 2020). |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2022)515  |
| date | October 26, 2022 |
When taking ILUC emissions into account 11 , the average GHG intensity of the fuels supplied in 2020 in the EU was 3.3% lower than in 2010. This corresponds to a saving of 30 Mt CO2eq during the year 2020. According to Article 7d of Directive 98/70/EC laying down the calculation of life cycle greenhouse gas emissions from biofuels, ILUC emissions are not taken into account in assessing compliance with the minimum 6% reduction target.
Further action will be necessary in order to decarbonize the fuel used in transport and contribute to the increased climate ambition, as set out in the European Green Deal and the subsequent “Fit For 55” legislative package proposed by the Commission on 14 July 2021 and undergoing co-decision processes. The proposed revision of the Renewable Energy Directive 12 substantially increases the overall ambition in order to reduce the GHG emission intensity of all transport fuels by 13% by 2030 compared with the 2010 baseline, while the Commission has proposed to repeal the 6% reduction target of the FQD in order to avoid double regulation and streamline the legislation. The proposed ReFuelEU Aviation and FuelEU Maritime Regulations also aim to boost the production and uptake of the sustainable alternative fuels in the aviation and maritime sectors.
2.2 Fuel supply
This section summarises the data submitted by Member States on all fossil fuels, biofuels and fuels of non-biological origin within the scope of the Fuel Quality Directive for road transport and non-road mobile machinery.
Total fuel supply reported by the 27 Member States in 2020 was 10 585 petajoules (PJ), representing a decrease of 10.8 % compared to 2019, largely as a result of the effects of the COVID-19 crisis. The fuel supply remained largely dominated by fossil fuels (93.2%) followed by biofuels (6.8%) and a very minor share (0.02%) of electricity (see Section 2.4). No renewable fuels of non-biological origin were reported in 2020.
The fossil fuel supply in 2020 remained dominated by diesel (56.1%; 5 934 PJ), followed by petrol (22.2%; 2 354 PJ) and gas oil (12.6%; 1 337 PJ). Liquefied petroleum gas and natural gas had a combined share of 2.2% (236 PJ) (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: Fuel energy supply shares per fuel type in 2020 (Source: EEA)
2.3 Biofuel consumption
The total biofuel consumption increased slightly from 693 PJ to 723 PJ between 2019 and 2020 in the 27 Member States. It continues to be dominated by biodiesel (fatty acid methyl ester, FAME) accounting for 62.0% of the total biofuel consumption (449 PJ), followed by hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) (20.2%; 146 PJ), and bioethanol (13.4%; 97 PJ). Bio-ethyl tert-butyl ether (bio-ETBE) accounted for 1.6% (11 PJ) and biogas for 1.4% (10 PJ) of the total biofuel consumption. All other biofuels represented a much smaller share (see Figure 3). Thus, more than 80% of all biofuels are blended into diesel fuel. Detailed information for all biofuels and pathways can be found in the EEA Technical Report No 2022/02.
Figure 3: Biofuel energy supply shares per fuel type in 2020 (Source: EEA)
2.4 Electricity consumption
The reporting of electricity consumption by fuel suppliers is voluntary and fifteen Member States (compared to eleven in 2019) reported data on electricity consumed by electric vehicles and motorcycles (see Table 1). The total reported quantity of electricity consumed by electric vehicles has increased to 6 218 196 GJ (excluding powertrain efficiency adjustment) from 3 714 644 GJ in 2019, representing a 67% increase. The actual electricity consumption of electric vehicles in the different Member States may be larger since the reporting of electricity is not compulsory under Article 7a and is still not reported by many Member States albeit it would contribute towards achieving the 6% target.
Table 1: Electricity consumed by electric vehicles and motorcycles in 2020 as a reported contribution by fuel suppliers to their GHG reduction target (Source: EEA)
| Member State | Quantity of energy | GHG intensity | ||
| excluding powertrain efficiency (GJ) | including powertrain efficiency 13 (GJ) | reported by Member State (g CO2e/MJ) | reported by Member State (g CO2e/kWh) | |
| Austria | 69 971 | 27 988 | 21.8 | 78 |
| Bulgaria | 129 600 | 51 840 | 522.0 | 1 879 |
| Czechia | 1 085 | 434 | 177.0 | 637 |
| Estonia | 62 091 | 24 836 | 114.5 | 412 |
| France | 1 526 400 | 610 560 | 16.6 | 60 |
| Germany | 2 394 000 | 957 600 | 153.0 | 551 |
| Hungary | 17 387 | 6 955 | 56.3 | 203 |
| Ireland | 176 276 | 70 511 | 110.1 | 396 |
| Italy | 234 015 | 93 606 | 110.3 | 397 |
| Netherlands | 766 091 | 306 437 | 141.0 | 508 |
| Portugal | 37 350 | 14 940 | 65.7 | 237 |
| Romania | 645 225 | 258 090 | - | - |
| Slovakia | 155 950 | 62 380 | 46.4 | 167 |
| Slovenia | 2 447 | 979 | 97.5 | 351 |
| Sweden | 308 | 123 | 13.0 | 47 |
| Total | 6 218 196 | 2 487 279 |
3. Overview of the 2020 fuel quality data in the EU
According to Article 8 of the Fuel Quality Directive, all 27 Member States, Norway, and the United Kingdom in respect of Northern Ireland submitted reports on national fuel quality data for the year 2020.
This section provides the data for petrol and diesel sales, and the biocomponents included therein, for road transport reported by 27 EU Member States. It excludes other fossil fuels, other biofuels and fuels of non-biological origin, as well as fuels used for non-road mobile machinery.
3.1 Petrol and diesel
The share of diesel has remained stable between 2017 and 2020, reaching the value of 73.2% of total sales in 2020. Earlier it had increased somewhat, from 71.2% in 2014 to 73.3% in 2017. This is the legacy of the, so called, dieselisation of Europe’s vehicle fleet over the last decades that came to halt in the wake of the diesel emissions scandal. The total amount of diesel sold in 2020 has decreased by 12% when compared with 2019 as an effect of the COVID-19 crisis. The petrol sales in 2020 decreased by similar percentage (12.4%) (see Table 2).
Table 2: Diesel and petrol fuel sales for EU-27 (in million litres and their respective shares) in 2017 – 2020
| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | |
| Diesel fuel sales | 235 388 (73.3%) | 241 653 (73.3%) | 246 865 (73.0%) | 217 395 (73.2%) |
| Petrol fuel sales | 85 911 (26.7%) | 87 994 (26.7%) | 90 917 (27.0%) | 79 659 (26.8%) |
| Total (diesel and petrol) | 321 299 | 329 629 | 337 782 | 297 054 |
Diesel fuel consumption is dominant in all EU Member States, except in Cyprus where the proportion of petrol use is 50%. Other countries with relatively high petrol consumption are Greece, Netherlands and Finland with the corresponding shares of 45%, 42% and 38% respectively, while on the other end, in Bulgaria, Latvia and Lithuania, the corresponding petrol shares range from 18%, 16% and 13% respectively.
There are no significant changes in the distribution of petrol sales in terms of petrol grade research octane numbers (RON) between 2019 and 2020. The majority of petrol sales in 2020 comprised fuels with a petrol grade RON 95, the share of which slightly increased compared to 2019. The share of 95 ≤ RON < 98 sales decreased, while the share of RON ≥ 98 sales slightly increased compared to preceding year (see Table 3).
Table 3: Share of petrol sales in EU-27 according to RON numbers
| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | |
| RON 95 | 84.3% | 80.0% | 77.8% | 79.3% |
| 95 ≤ RON < 98 | 8.5% | 14.9% | 16.7% | 14.3% |
| RON ≥ 98 | 6.9% | 4.9% | 5.4% | 6.4% |
| RON = 91 | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.01% |
3.2 Biocomponents content
In 2020, almost all petrol and diesel sold in the EU is marketed as containing biocomponents. Of all petrol sold, 99.8% contained biocomponents 14 with the following breakdown: 65.7% contained up to 5% ethanol content by volume (E5) which is by 7.6 percentage points less than in 2019, while 33.3% contained up to 10% ethanol content (E10) demonstrating an increase by 7.6 percentage points in comparison to 2019; 1.0% of petrol contained more than 10% ethanol (E+ 15 ).
Of all the diesel fuel sold, 99.7% contained biocomponents, whereas 86.2% of diesel fuel contained up to 7% FAME (B7), 13.8% contained more (B+) 16 showing an important increase from 0.8% in 2019 (see Table 4).
Table 4: Use of biocomponents in petrol and diesel fuels sold in the EU-27 in 2017-2020
| Fuel type | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | |
| Petrol | E0 | 14.5% | 4.9% | 0.7% | 0.0% 17 |
| E5 | 66.7% | 81.5% | 73.3% | 65.7% | |
| E10 | 18.6% | 13.4% | 25.7% | 33.3% | |
| E+ | 0.1% | 0.2% | 0.4% | 1.0% | |
| Diesel | B0 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% 18 |
| B7 | 81.8% | 99.2% | 99.1% | 86.2% | |
| B+ | 16.2% | 0.8% | 0.8% | 13.8% |
3.3 Compliance of sold fuels with quality limits
Overall in the EU, a high compliance with the fuel quality limits is observed. The very large majority of key fuel parameters in the samples taken in 2020 were reported within the tolerance limits.
Lithuania, Slovenia and Sweden verified and reported full compliance for both petrol and diesel fuels. Eight Member States verified and reported full compliance for petrol (Bulgaria, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden), and seventeen for diesel (Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden).
Member States reported a total of 235 cases of non-compliance for petrol and 90 for diesel, corresponding to a share of 1% and 0.4% respectively of the total number of samples taken in 2020, which is by 33% less than in 2019. For petrol, the most common parameters falling outside the specifications were exceedances of the summer vapour pressure (in fifteen Member States), research octane number (RON, in six Member States), motor octane number (MON, in five Member States), aromatics content (hydrocarbon analysis, in five Member States) and sulphur content (in one Member State, France). For diesel, the most common parameters falling outside the specifications were the sulphur content and the FAME content (in six Member States for both parameters).
All Member States described the actions taken when non-compliant samples were identified. These actions included informing the competent authorities, initiating investigations, imposing penalties and fines, and resampling. In a small number of cases, no action was taken where the non-compliant parameters were found to be very close to the tolerance limits.
There was therefore no need for the Commission to launch any investigation in this area. It can be concluded that the fuel quality monitoring system in place ensures that high quality fuels are sold in the EU in accordance with the requirements of the Fuel Quality Directive.
Annex
Table 5: Upstream Emission Reduction contribution towards the 6% GHG emission intensity target in 2020, excluding ILUC (Source: EEA)
| Member state | GHG intensity reduction excluding UERs | UERs contribution | GHG intensity reduction including UERs | GHG intensity incl. UERs (g CO2eq/MJ) | GHG intensity excl. UERs (g CO2eq/MJ) |
| Cyprus | 3.7% | 2.3% | 6.0% | 88.4 | 90.6 |
| Denmark | 3.7% | 2.3% | 6.0% | 88.5 | 90.6 |
| Austria | 3.2% | 1.9% | 5.1% | 89.3 | 91.1 |
| Hungary | 4.2% | 1.8% | 6.1% | 88.4 | 90.1 |
| Estonia | 4.9% | 1.4% | 6.3% | 88.2 | 89.5 |
| Slovakia | 4.5% | 1.3% | 5.8% | 88.6 | 89.9 |
| Romania | 4.0% | 0.8% | 4.8% | 89.6 | 90.3 |
| Czechia | 5.4% | 0.7% | 6.1% | 88.4 | 89.0 |
| Poland | 4.4% | 0.4% | 4.7% | 89.6 | 90.0 |
| Luxembourg | 5.7% | 0.4% | 6.0% | 88.4 | 88.8 |
| Italy | 4.5% | 0.3% | 4.7% | 89.6 | 89.9 |
| Belgium | 6.3% | 0.0% | 6.3% | 88.1 | 88.1 |
| Bulgaria | 4.0% | 0.0% | 4.0% | 90.3 | 90.3 |
| Croatia | 2.2% | 0.0% | 2.2% | 92.0 | 92.0 |
| Finland | 7.2% | 0.0% | 7.2% | 87.4 | 87.4 |
| France | 4.4% | 0.0% | 4.4% | 90.0 | 90.0 |
| Germany | 6.1% | 0.0% | 6.1% | 88.3 | 88.3 |
| Greece | 4.0% | 0.0% | 4.0% | 90.3 | 90.3 |
| Ireland | 3.2% | 0.0% | 3.2% | 91.1 | 91.1 |
| Latvia | 2.9% | 0.0% | 2.9% | 91.3 | 91.3 |
| Lithuania | 3.3% | 0.0% | 3.3% | 91.0 | 91.0 |
| Malta | 6.2% | 0.0% | 6.2% | 88.2 | 88.2 |
| Netherlands | 5.4% | 0.0% | 5.4% | 89.0 | 89.0 |
| Portugal | 3.4% | 0.0% | 3.4% | 90.9 | 90.9 |
| Slovenia | 3.8% | 0.0% | 3.8% | 90.5 | 90.5 |
| Spain | 3.7% | 0.0% | 3.7% | 90.6 | 90.6 |
| Sweden | 19.1% | 0.0% | 19.1% | 76.1 | 76.1 |
| EU27 | 5.2% | 0.3% | 5.5% | 89.0 | 89.2 |
(1)
Directive 98/70/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council relating to the quality of petrol and diesel fuels and amending Council Directive 93/12/EEC, OJ L 350 of 28.12.1998, p. 58.
(2)
Council Directive (EU) 2015/652 of 20 April 2015 laying down calculation methods and reporting requirements pursuant to Directive 98/70/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council relating to the quality of petrol and diesel fuels, OJ L 107 of 25.4.2015, p. 26.
(3)
Directive (EU) 2015/1513 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 September 2015 amending Directive 98/70/EC relating to the quality of petrol and diesel fuels and amending Directive 2009/28/EC on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources, OJ L239 of 15.9.2015, p. 8.
(4)
Directive (EU) 2018/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources, OJ L 328, 21.12.2018, p. 82–209
(5)
C(2019) 2055 final: https://ec.europa.eu/energy/sites/ener/files/documents/2_en_act_part1_v3.pdf
(6)
Following the end of the transition period, Council Directive (EU) 2015/652 setting out relevant reporting obligations no longer applies to the UK as whole. However, pursuant to Article 5(4) read in conjunction with Annex 2, point 47 of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland to the Withdrawal Agreement ( https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:12020W/TXT ), Council Directive (EU) 2015/652 continues to apply to and in the UK in respect of Northern Ireland.
(7)
The UK is currently finalising their reporting submission for Northern Ireland under Article 7a of the FQD and in accordance with Article 5 of Council Directive (EU) 2015/652.
(8)
https://www.eionet.europa.eu/etcs/etc-cm/products/etc-cm-report-2022-02
(9)
“Upstream emissions” means all greenhouse gas emissions occurring prior to the raw material entering a refinery or a processing plant where the fuel is produced.
(10)
https://ec.europa.eu/clima/system/files/2016-11/guidance_note_on_uer_en.pdf
(11)
For this calculation, the provisional estimated indirect land-use change emissions from biofuels were taken into account as listed in Annex V of the Fuel Quality Directive.
(12)
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52021PC0557
(13)
In accordance with Annex I, Part 1 of the Council Directive (EU) 2015/652, the GHG reduction target is calculated on the basis of electricity quantities using the adjustment factor for the EV technology, which corresponds to the inclusion of the powertrain efficiency.
(14)
This includes bioethanol directly blended into petrol or converted to ETBE and then blended into petrol.
(15)
E+ is petrol fuel with > 10% (% v/v) ethanol content
(16)
B+ is diesel fuel with > 7 % (% v/v) biodiesel content
(17)
Only Malta and Slovakia reported 186 million litres of petrol sold with no biofuel content, corresponding to a share of 0.2% of the total petrol sales in 2020 (due to the low share, it is left out of Table 4).
(18)
Only Latvia reported 638 million litres of diesel sold in winter period with no biofuel content, corresponding to a share of 0.3% of the total diesel sales in 2020 (due to the low share, it is left out of Table 4).