EU helps Swiss emissions fall … and energy categories get stricter

Under its labelling system to encourage customers to buy the most fuel-efficient cars, it has seven categories (A-G) and also a rule that says only one seventh of all new cars on the Swiss market can fall into the top category. Because of improvements in fuel consumption, the criteria for a car to fall in a certain category are reviewed very two years. The labelling system, introduced in 2003, also gives the overall average emissions, which have come down from 204 g/km to 188g in the last two years, an improvement the ministry accredits, at least in part, to the EU’s first mandatory CO₂ standards for new cars.