New EU emissions proposals

[mfspen]

Saw this on Yahoo news :-

"BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission laid out a broad new strategy to cut carbon dioxide emissions from cars on Wednesday, proposing binding limits which automakers say will threaten jobs and lead to big price increases for consumers. The rules would require carmakers to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from new cars to an average of 130 grams per kilometre across the fleet by 2012.
Binding legislation, to be proposed this year or early next year, would target an overall cut in average new car emissions to 120 g/km by 2012 from current levels of roughly 163 g/km."

I guess this means the end of powerful petrol engines !

 

[HeliChris]

Looks like the 81g/Km A2 might make a come back, as a free gift when you buy an RS4

 

[AL_B]

Nothing we, UK or EU, do now or in 5-10 years time is going to offset what the developing nations, China, India, Africa etc etc are churning out.

If people believe in the global warming theory (and there are lots of theories as to why the world is warming), there ain't anything we can do now to stop it, is my opinion. Other than, curbing the developing nations output and helping them clean up.

But it does sound like the end of performance petrol cars. Sh#t that means in 4-5 years time when I want to sell my new S3, people won't want it because its high emissions!!

AL

 

[AL_B]

PS: didn't Clarkson cover this on Top Gear not long ago. When there was that big thing about MPV and soft roaders.?

 

[Amchlolor]

It could mean the end of big engines full stop,never mind petrol ones.
Take a look at the sorts of cars that currently manage to get down to 120g/km and see what I mean.
You won't like it !
Mind you,my wife's 90bhp 1.5 turbo diesel is down around there (£50 a year roadtax) and it's a reasonable going thing.
If you'll excuse the pun,driving around in a car like that wouldn't be the end of the world....

 

[steve184]

yeh but co2 is one chemical - and technology does move on - very fast! - if older cars were based on co2 for example lets say an old mk2 ford escort 1800 from the late 70's early 80's. If that was measured in co2 when it was in production it was probably something daft like 700g/km - then you look at an equivelent engine today that manages to do 170g/km - this was probably thought not possible a few years back so who knows??

At the end of the day we all knw that fossil fueled car engines days are numbered anyway and probably to enf their time on this planet there will be a last burst attempt with hybrid versions - then after that we are probably in the era of Hydrogen fuel cells - when that happens we probably all won't look back!

 

[HeliChris]

Not sure it will be the end of big engines, because they are talking about averages, but how this works in practice would be interesting. Will it mean that a manufactures will have to register an average, or the industry as a whole. If its on a manufacture basis the likes of Porsche and Ferrari may be in trouble, but it might be on a group basis so VAG can still make big powerful Audi's as long as they register lots of clean lopo's.

I 100% agree that this is all pointless until the whole world is taking the same measures, its not called global warming for nothing. I don't have enough knowledge to comment on the possibility of other factors causing climate change.

Chris.

 

[h5djr]

One thing I'm not sure about. Will the EU require all cars 'Sold' in the EU to meet these requirements or just those 'Manufactured' in EU. If it is the former then at least it will be a level playing field. If it is the latter then it will kill the car making in the EU because everyone will just buy ones made from outside the EU. Companies like VW/Audi, Mercedes, Porsche and BMW etc will just move their factories to outside the EU.

 

[marriedblonde]

When they say average accross the range does that mean they might introduce some economical cars to counter balance the more powerful ones?

The states had something similar to this a few years ago (well late 80's) and if the average economy accross your entire range was higher than a set limit you where effectively fined (ok so they might call it a TAX)

J.

 

[Amchlolor]

Strange to think our kids may have to listen to us ranting on about horsepower,before they go out in their hydrogen powered,computer controlled pods.
I intend stockpiling petrol in my fortified garage,then going out on my bike in the middle of the night.