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by David Finlay (09 Jul 07) The most optimistic are the French and the Italians, who tend to build smaller and therefore more economical cars. According to industry analyst JATO Dynamics, French manufacturers have achieved an average of 149g/km so far in 2007, while the Italians have got down to 147g/km. Both have improved their CO2 performances over the last few years (in 2004 their figures were 153g/km and 150g/km respectively) and are likely to continue doing so. Renault, for example, is making a big deal of its eCO2 programme, of which the recently-announced bioethanol Renault Megane E85 is a part. With the new Bravo, Fiat is embarking on a new strategy of providing small engines with varying levels of turbocharging so as to keep CO2 levels down as far as possible while still offering a choice of power outputs (see our feature on The Rise Of The Small Engine ). Volkswagen is going down the same route as Fiat, and is also starting to sell exceptionally economical, low-CO2 versions of several of its cars under the name of Bluemotion. And another German manufacturer, BMW, is devoting great efforts to lowering CO2 levels through its EfficientDynamics programme. However, German cars are on average larger, more powerful and less economical than French or Italian ones, and the result, as reported by JATO, is that Germany's overall CO2 figure for the first half of 2007 is 171g/km. It would take more than a revision of details for this to be reduced to 130g/km in five years. In fact, it would require a major technological overhaul, which would be fearsomely expensive and might not result in cars that appealed to potential customers. "Manufacturers have done huge amounts to reduce carbon emissions," says JATO's International Sales and Marketing Director, Nasir Shah, "but ultimately they are running vast commercial operations and have to produce vehicles that the public wishes to buy." ACEA, the European car manufacturer's association, reckons that achieving a 130g/km average by 2012 can't be done. Sources suggest that ACEA will propose a revised target of 135g/km by 2015. This is a further step away from the original intentions of European Commissioner Stavros Dimas, who wanted the 2012 average to be 120g/km. ACEA is believed to be willing to accept 120g/km as a goal as long as no firm date is set on when it should happen; JATO reports that it is "generally accepted" that this figure could not be achieved before 2020 (by which time environmental pressure group Transport And Environment wants the average to have fallen to 80g/km). There is a feeling that too much emphasis is being placed on what can be done by concentrating on engines, and that other ways of lowering both fuel consumption and CO2 emissions (such as Volkswagen's Bluemotion and parts of BMW's EfficientDynamics) can also play their part. The use of lightweight materials including aluminium (favoured by Audi and Jaguar) and composites is already part of motoring life, though as Nasir Shah points out, "the industry must look hard at the cost and environmental footprint associated with the manufacturing and recycling of alternative materials." Shah also notes that hybrid cars - noted for their low CO2 levels since they are powered partly by electric motors - "rate very poorly when their footprints are viewed in the context of their entire lifecycles, and that's where the whole issue is more complicated than the green lobby would have you believe." So where do we go from here? In JATO's opinion, "with such a highly complex web of contributing factors to consider, it is currently very hard to see how the industry will unite and agree a definitive means of moving forward in the short term without an EU compromise on the current objectives." In other words, the ball has been sent back into the politicians' court. CO2 By Manufacturer |
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