Filed under: Legislation and Policy, Europe/EU
Who said 130? 120? The EU could ask automakers go down to 95 g/km
The Slovenian rotating president of the EU (commemorative logo pictured above) has proposed a new, very low figure for average fleet CO2 emissions. Instead of going modest and demanding automakers lower their average to 130 g/km by 2012, which is the current proposal, the Slovenian president has announced that automakers could go for a stricter limit of 95 g/km by 2020. This would counteract some automakers' statements saying that 2012 models were already being designed and it was too late to make them that efficient. So far, the 27 EU country members are divided. Some countries support their auto industry and have asked for a 130 g/km limit by 2015 while others would prefer tougher limits to be enforced. There are also severe discrepancies on how fines should be applied. We will stay tuned to see if they reach an agreement any time soon.
[Source: Europa Press]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Joseph 1:43PM (6/04/2008)
The person who proposed this is crazy. Not even the Prius or VW Polo Bluemotion meet achieve 95g/km.
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Karl-Uwe Strunzen 12:07AM (6/05/2008)
This makes absolute sense. This is because the number of models around the 120 g CO2/km has skyrocketed in Europe. The trend has affected many B-segment cars as well and now even huge cars such as the Citroen C5 emit just 149 g CO2/km. This has happened IN JUST A FEW MONTHS so that the 2012 objectives should indeed be dramatically reduced.
This would imply not only that the highest (225) should now be lowered, but that this also applies to the smallest cars.
The only reason that there was a push for 130 in the first place is that the Germans have not followed this trend. Fiat and Citroen, for example, (pruducer of the C5) have been tussling for the lowest CO2 average in Europe (PSA had this for 2006 and Fiat for 2007).
Of course Merkel isn't going to just sit by and let this happen. Her Sturmtruppen divisions will be unleashed in the next few days, and my bet is that the EU level will be set at 150 g by 2020, or thereabouts...:
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/12/08/bmw-daimler-and-porsche-win-worst-eu-lobbying-award/
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Karl-Uwe Strunzen 12:13AM (6/05/2008)
the German automakers have done very little or nothing over the past 10 years in this sense. The CO2 average figures above come from the T&E report for the EU (2006) and the Jato report (2007). In some cases the average has actually WORSENED in recent years. There is utter contempt in Germany for efforts to reduce emissions (not just CO2 - all emissions).
The Germans are placed at the lucrative end of the market and have huge R&D budgets at their disposal. Considering also that a 1% reduction for an "overweight car" is not the same as a 1% reduction for a much "leaner" car, then the situation is just ridiculous.....
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PG 8:13AM (6/05/2008)
Karl-Uwe Strunzen, the reason why German carmakers have not lowered their emissions is because they produce mostly premium cars. Companies like BMW, Audi or Mercedes need to pack more and more features into their cars (which add weight) and squeeze in ever larger engines, in order to keep the typical customer of premium cars happy.
The French, mostly PSA, and Fiat, in contrast, make most of their turnover with their budget cars (C2, Clio, Panda, 500, Peugeot 207, 308, etc.) These cars naturally have lower emissions.
These nearly impossible co2-figures could seriously hurt the German automotive industry.
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Karl-Uwe Strunzen 9:29AM (6/05/2008)
PG your reasoning is flawed for numerous reasons. German cars include small cars as well such as the VW Polo and Golf, Audi A3, the Class A Mercedes and so on.
However these cars are still terrible in terms of emissions (and not only, car safety as well according to EURONCAP) when compared to their competitors, DESPITE costing considerably more than their competition:
http://www.vcacarfueldata.org.uk/information/how-to-use-the-data-tables.asp#petrol
The added features argument is also flawed. Weight for weight German cars pollute more. For example:
Citroen C5 1.6 16V HDi/110CV FAP
149 g CO2/km, 1503 kg, 24100 euros
VW Passat 1.9 TDI/105CV DPF
151 g CO2/km, 1425 kg, 25600 euros
Note how the German car has higher CO2 despite weighing considerably LESS and costing more. Keep in mind as well that the German groups have a technological lag with common-rail technology compared with the French and Italians. There is also a strong lag in the downsizing of cars. In the example above there is no engine smaller than 1.9 for the Passat.
The only thing that may harm German industry is the total contempt for the obvious need for less polluting vehicles. There is nothing new about this push. The Germans, just like everyone else, signed the 1998 ACEA agreement which they haven't honored:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACEA_agreement
This isn't about what a Slovenian minister says today or Renault say tomorrow. If you stand back and look at the bigger picture it is obvious where we're going and if the Germans haven't done anything till now, it's time to wake up and do something. "Something" doesn't mean bribing politicians in Bruxelles, suing the City of London(over the LCC) nor does it mean coming up with marketing gimmicks such as the Blumotion line. Last year 950 Polo Blumotions were produced for the ridiculous price of 19000 euros. Something REAL is needed here. This isn't what Germany or Europe needs.
Of course smaller cars have lower emissions. What is unacceptable is that the small cars you list, which already have made emission improvements, continue to do so while cars above 200 g CO2/km (simply because no real efforts have been made) continue to make no improvements
Going from 119 to 100 is not the same as going from 350 to 340, for many reasons.
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Karl-Uwe Strunzen 6:47PM (6/05/2008)
the first step was to make more efficient engines, for example more efficient common rails (but not only). then there was the downsizing as well as the series of small measures that, for a SMALL price to the user, bring the CO2 figures down. it looks like that train has already been missed.
in Europe the next step will be EVs. besides the Tesla and the MieV (the first is already in production), the current European EV projects I'm aware of are the Renault Megane EV (project better place), the Bollore-Pininfarina EV and the Fiat hybrid. I'm still unaware of any German EV projects for the short-term
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Mark Kiernan 6:12PM (6/06/2008)
Fantastic, but won't happen when the German PM is under the thumb of the likes of BMW and Porche. There is no reason why the car companies couldn't reach their targets. First convert all to hybrid and then work on effency.
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