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Emissions cut ordered by EU will see petrol cars exceed 52mpg
publication date: Dec 18, 2008
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author/source: Robin Roberts
 | | | Average CO2 emissions from new cars
must be slashed to 130g/km by 2015, the equivalent of achieving 58mpg
with a diesel engine and 52mpg in a petrol car.
The EU new car CO2 legislation passed by the European parliament today
sets out a tough programme for car manufacturers with 65pc of new cars
averaging the 130g/km target by 2012, 75pc by 2013, 80pc by 2014 and
100pc by 2015.
An additional 10g/km must be achieved by complementary measures like
alternative fuels and tyre pressure monitoring systems. Manufacturers
exceeding the targets will be heavily fined per additional gram of CO2
emitted, for every car registered across Europe.
Small volume (below 10,000 units per year) will have tough individual
targets set while niche manufacturers (10,000 to 300,000 units per
year) are expected to deliver a 25pc reduction of the 2007 figure.
With the UK home to more than ten small volume and niche manufacturers,
the provision serves to protect the diversity and dynamism of the
sector.
Commenting, SMMT chief executive Paul Everitt said, “This is an
ambitious piece of legislation presenting a tough challenge to the
automotive industry. We share the environmental objectives and welcome
the long-term framework the legislation sets out.
The sector has already made significant progress in improving the
environmental impact of its products and this legislation places an
even greater premium on innovation, skills and training in order to
meet these commitments. At a time of economic uncertainty, it
underlines the importance of long-term investment in the sector.
“If the Council follows the Parliament’s vote, as they are expected to
do, Europe has adopted an extremely tough piece of legislation”, said
Christian Streiff, President of ACEA and CEO of PSA Peugeot Citroën.
“This legislation forms part of the ambitious European energy and
climate change package. We are committed to do what we can to deliver,
despite the sudden, dramatic economic downturn that severely limits our
resources. We ask for governments to support the strategic auto sector
in these extraordinary circumstances.”
The CO2 legislation gives the automobile industry some essential
flexibility to adjust its development and production cycles to the
legal requirements and to limit the financial risks caused by largely
unpredictable factors including consumer preferences, market trends,
economic developments and legal requirements in different fields.
“However, and despite the modifications to the original legislative
proposal, the penalty of € 95 per excess gramme of CO2 remains
extremely high compared to the price of CO2 in other sectors”, added
Streiff.
The legislation requires the industry to continue to invest heavily in
R&D and new product programmes in order to reach the short-term
targets.
Furthermore, the long-term CO2 target set by the EU will require
technological breakthroughs, new refueling infrastructure and a swift
renewal of the car fleet on Europe’s roads.
The current economic situation hampers the European automobile
industry’s ability to allocate the required resources. Apart from funds
for R&D, the sector needs a functioning financial market and a
range of market incentives to restore consumer demand.
“The industry reiterates its call for €40 billion in low-interest loans”, said Ivan Hodac, Secretary General of ACEA.
“The allocation of €16 billion by the European Investment Bank to the
transport sector, plus the stimulus package proposed by the Commission
and the various measures taken by national governments are welcome
steps. But given the capital- and engineering- intensive nature of our
industry and the significant new regulatory challenges facing us, more
will be required.”
The European Union agreed to require at least 10 percent of energy for
road and rail transport in 2020 to come from renewable sources led by
biofuels while adding checks to prevent land damage and food shortages.
The European Parliament’s vote today encourages the use of biofuels --
made primarily from crops such as rapeseed, wheat, corn and sugar --
and green electricity to fight climate change and reduce reliance on
oil imports.
The new law imposes the 10 percent target for renewable energy in land
transport on each member country. The EU assembly approved bonuses for
biofuels that don’t compete with food crops and included a review in
2014 to assess the impact of the 2020 target.
Biofuels, the main renewable energy for transport, risk displacing food
production unless a “second generation” of fuels from non-food sources
like farm and industry waste is developed.
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It is a question that no one seems to have a definitive answer for.
Just which fuel will take the place of fossil fuels in the future? Even
the car manufacturers seem to be hedging their bets.
Toyota, Chevrolet and Nissan are focusing on hybrids with the potential
for the introduction of full electric vehicles in the future.
Saab on
the other hand, seem to be expecting biofuels to take the lead with the
development of its BioPower range and the concept BioHybrids which use
biofuels and hybrid battery technology.
While Honda has taken the lead in the hydrogen field with the FCX Clarity followed by BMW with the BMW Hydrogen 7 saloon.
Green car advisory website, TheGreenCarWebsite.co.uk polled the opinion
of 1025 website visitors to ask what they believed to be the ultimate
fuel of the future on which our cars will run.
The surprising winner was electricity; with 40 per cent of the vote.
The flexibility that electricity offers perhaps was the leading
attraction, after all electricity is a medium of energy transfer and
can come from any originating source.
Potentially the electricity used to charge our cars could be generated
from anything from ordinary fossil fuels to household waste or tidal
power.
This should please the government, as Mr. Brown has said that electric
cars should play a leading part in the UK’s pledge to cut carbon
emissions.
At the G8 summit in Japan, Gordon Brown said he wanted wants all new
cars sold in Britain to be electric or hybrid by 2020. The recent
report from the Committee on Climate Change entitled ‘Building a
low-carbon economy - the UK's contribution to tackling climate change’,
which was published on 1st December 2008, stated that the UK should
invest in the development of electric cars couple with the
decarbonisation of electricity generation as part of a list measures
designed to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.
Hydrogen took
second place with 28 per cent of the votes. Hydrogen has been widely
acclaimed as a hopeful replacement to fossil fuels as it is able to
offer a similar performance to that of a conventional fossil-fuelled
car. Honda’s FCX Clarity has a driving range 280 miles driving range
for the slightly longer than the driving range of the Telsa Roadster at
220 miles.
Plus hydrogen fuelled vehicles can be instantly refuelled unlike
electric vehicles which require a waiting period to recharge. However
hydrogen technology is currently still being refined while problems
such as generation and storage along with the supporting infrastructure
are still being addressed. While the second-generation of bio fuels (characterised
by fuels such as algae or biomass) languished in fourth position with
just 9 per cent.
| | Faye Sunderland, editor of TheGreenCarWebsite (right) says, “Electric vehicles offer a comparatively ready way to begin running greener cars. While there are issues with the time it takes to recharge, driving range and heavy battery technology, there are already electric vehicles running happily on our roads. Our poll shows that the UK population have warmly received the idea of running electric vehicles, wooed by the thought of no-direct emissions and quiet running motors.
Hydrogen technology which came in at second place is still a little way off before we can reasonably expect to be running a respectable number of our vehicles on it.” |  | | |
Hybrid technology offers the convenience of a fossil-fuelled with the cleanliness of an electric motor in urban driving conditions and took third place with 12 per cent of the vote.
The full results were:
• Electric (40pc, 406 Votes)
• Hydrogen fuel cell (28pc, 292 Votes)
• Hybrid technology (12pc, 121 Votes)
• New biofuel technologies (Algae, biomass, non-food crops, cellulosic ethanol etc) (9pc, 93 Votes)
• Diesel (5pc, 56 Votes)
• Petrol (4pc, 37 Votes)
• First generation biofuel (Ethanol, biodiesel) (2pc, 20 Votes)
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