Used vehicles and CO2 emissions

In 2020, around 335,000 used cars and other light duty vehicles were exported from Europe to Africa. Exported second-hand cars shipped from Dutch harbours are, on average, 18.2 years old and have a mileage of 226,000 km. Following the revision of the European Commission's end-of-life directive, the KiM Netherlands Institute for Transport Policy Analysis did a quick scan whether export regulation for second-hand cars leads to CO₂ savings. Export regulation can, for example, ban the export of old cars or impose requirements regarding a minimum Euro emission class (Euro 4). KiM has not been able to determine the CO₂ savings of different types of export regulation because too little is known about, among other things, the characteristics of the cars that are currently exported, the use of second-hand cars in Africa and the alternatives that people will use. Therefore, KiM concludes in de short synopsis 'Used vehicles and CO₂ emissions: A quick scan of what we do and do not know about the effects of European export regulations on CO₂ emissions in Africa' that too little is known to determine with certainty that export regulation leads to CO₂ savings.