Briefing

Danger ahead: why weight-based CO2 standards will make cars dirtier and less safe

December 14, 2007

T&E's report on why basing new car CO2 standards on vehicle weight would be counterproductive has been updated.

In this briefing, T&E explains that using vehicle weight as the attribute to base car CO2 standards on has serious negative consequences for safety, emissions and costs. Weight-based CO2 standards in America have led to weight increases of 13 to 28 per cent. And contrary to the conventional wisdom, Japanese weight-based fuel economy standards failed to break the trend towards heavier vehicles.

Furthermore, T&E argues that the car’s ‘footprint’ (track width multiplied by wheelbase), as used in the definition of new American light truck fuel economy standards, is the best available alternative car attribute.

The best solution overall, however, is to apply the same CO2 standard to all cars.

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