The agreement confirms the 95g/km target for new cars sold in the EU for 2020 and calls for a new system for testing emissions and fuel consumption of new cars.

In response, Ivan Hodac, ACEA secretary general, said: ‘This is an important milestone in the negotiations, but there still is some way to go before a final agreement is voted in the plenary of the European Parliament.’

He added: ‘At this stage we would simply like to stress once again that if super-credits are to achieve their aim of fostering innovation and bringing ultra low-emission vehicles to the market, they need to be applied in a more meaningful way, as is the case in other regions of the world. It is in everyone’s interest to get clean vehicles on the roads, and super-credits are the only EU-wide incentive to help put on the market today the technologies of the future.’

ACEA also said that it takes note of the fact that long-term targets have not been set at this stage.

Hodac commented: ‘Today Europe’s auto industry delivers vehicles with the highest environmental standards in the world, and we are committed to continue doing so. However, it is only reasonable to first conduct proper impact assessments before fixing targets for beyond 2020 to ensure that such targets can be both ambitious and feasible.’