In the “Basic Taxonomy Regulation” VO(EU) 2020/852, the various economic activities are assessed in terms of their sustainability.For the areas of road freight and passenger transport, the delegated regulations (EU) 2021/2129 and 2023/2485 apply with regard to the use of “appropriate tires” to reduce CO2 emissions and fuel consumption, which supplement or extend the basic regulation. These regulations set out requirements for tires as follows:
- Section “6.3 Local and regional passenger transport, passenger car transport” for vehicles of categories M2 and M3, and
- Section “6.5. Carriage by motorcycles, passenger cars and light commercial vehicles” for vehicles of categories M1 and N1, and
- Section “6.6 Carriage of goods by road” for vehicles of categories N1, N2 and N3
The following requirements then apply for “suitable tyres” within the meaning of the EU Taxonomy Regulation:
- lowest/best occupied tire label classification with regard to the category “rolling noise” and
- one of the two best occupied rolling resistance classifications in the respective tire class according to Regulation (EU) 2020/740.
As retreaded truck/bus tires have not yet been integrated into the tire labeling regulation, no label values are available for them. As a result, many companies that act in accordance with the taxonomy have so far rejected the use of retreaded tires!
However, this is contradicted by Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2486, which “…establishes the technical assessment criteria, (…) that an economic activity makes a significant contribution (…) to the transition to a circular economy, to the prevention and reduction of pollution.” evaluated:
In section “5.4 Sale of second-hand goods”, in subsection “5. Pollution prevention and control”, retreaded tires are explicitly excluded from these tire class/label requirements for new tires!This means that retreaded tires are to be considered taxonomy-compliant!
However, since neither a transport company nor a marketer/manufacturer of retreaded tires can be expected to find their way through the jungle of the multitude of existing EU regulations and their supplementary delegated regulations, BIPAVER asked the EU Commission for a written statement confirming the taxonomy conformity of retreaded tires.
