• Tighter car fuel efficiency standards welcomed

    Transport & Environment (T&E) has welcomed a European Commission proposal to confirm a 2020 fuel efficiency standard for new cars but says the target needs to be stronger with a further limit for 2025.

    Greg Archer, programme manager for clean vehicles at T&E said:
    “Fuel economy standards are good for jobs and European economy, good
    for drivers and good for the planet. This is a sound proposal, but the
    benefits could have been even greater had the Commission shown more
    ambition.”

    The Commission says the average new car sold in 2020 should emit no
    more than 95 grammes of CO2 per kilometre. CO2 emissions and fuel
    efficiency are directly linked. Based on today’s fuel prices, the
    average driver would save around €500 a year on fuel bills compared to
    current vehicles, if the 95g target set by the Commission for 2020
    becomes law. The costs of technology would pay back in around a year,
    delivering lower costs of ownership.

    T&E says the proposal should have gone further: an 80g target for 2020
    is feasible and affordable and would save drivers around € 650 per
    year. And even more substantial savings could have been possible if a
    2025 target of 60g CO2 had been set.

    The organisation also warns that a number of loopholes in the proposed
    legislation will be bad news for drivers and the environment. One of
    such loopholes is the proposal to include so-called ‘super-credits’,
    that give manufacturers fuel efficiency credits for more electric cars
    than they have actually sold.

    The Commission has also decided to stick to an outdated method to
    distribute efforts across carmakers, by favouring those car
    manufacturers that make heavier cars. This undermines lightweighting
    efforts, key to achieve improvements in fuel efficiency.

    Greg Archer added, “The Commission should have given additional
    rewards for making cars lighter, rather than heavier – this was a
    missed opportunity.”