Official cars and pollution: by 2025, only 14 per cent of newly registered vehicles will meet the Minimum Environmental Criteria

Brussels – Carbon dioxide emissions: the Italian public sector appears to have shifted into reverse. According to a new study published today (21 April) by T&E (Transport & Environment)—the European Federation for Transport and the Environment—the green transition of government vehicles has come to a sudden halt in recent years, with data showing a growing breach of the environmental standards that the state itself has imposed. 

The most critical finding concerns the failure to comply with the Minimum Environmental Criteria (CAM) introduced at the end of 2021. This legislation requires that at least 38.5 per cent of new vehicles made available to politicians or senior officials of the State or public administration be zero- or low-emission (emitting 50 g/km of carbon dioxide or less). However, this threshold has never been met at an aggregate level: whilst the figure stood at 30.5 per cent in 2022, it plummeted to 14 per cent in 2025. This is directly reflected in the average carbon dioxide emissions of new registrations: after a low of 89 g/km recorded in 2022, the average rose to 124 g/km in 2025.

 Meanwhile, in 2020, the Budget Law stipulated that 50 per cent of new government car registrations must be electric, hybrid or hydrogen-powered. This target, which had not been met until 2022, was then comfortably exceeded, reaching 70 per cent. 

The report highlights how “the coexistence of two sets of regulations using different parameters—the type of powertrain (hybrid, electric, hydrogen) for one, and emissions levels for the other—creates uncertainty in their application and, overall, undermines the effectiveness of the regulatory framework.” The hybrid vehicle presents a dilemma because more registrations mean higher emissions. The growth in registrations of this type of car has been significant and rapid: from 10 per cent in 2020 to 64 per cent in 2025. However, only a small proportion of vehicles in this category fall within the 50 g/km emissions limit: these are often plug-in vehicles (PHEVs), whose real-world emissions can be up to five times higher than type-approval figures. The only zero-emission technology, pure electric vehicles, has lost momentum, falling from 29.7 per cent in 2022 to a modest 14.1 per cent in 2025. 

The analysis reveals significant disparities between different local authorities. Ministries and regional and provincial authorities are found to be the least environmentally responsible: emission limits are exceeded by 96 per cent of vehicles purchased by the former and by 76 per cent of those purchased by the latter two. In addition to new registrations, the study paints a “complex” picture of the existing vehicle fleet. One in five vehicles is over twenty years old, and around 6,000 vehicles still belong to the most polluting emission classes (Euro 0-3). Local authorities account for the largest share of this fleet, with over 15,000 vehicles. 

From 1 January 2026, the requirements will become even stricter, stipulating that to count towards the 38.5 per cent quota of green vehicles, they must have emissions of 0 g/km. In practice, only fully electric cars will be eligible. To reverse this trend, T&E suggests clarifying the primacy of CAMs as a regulatory standard, boosting electric car registrations and establishing a transparent and accessible monitoring system to ensure effective compliance with the law.