Postponing the CO2 target for passenger cars: only at the expense of consumers!

Publication date: 08 December 2008

PRESS RELEASE

Brussels, 8th December 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“The compromise reached between European Parliament representatives and French Presidency representatives risks to jeopardise the sustainability of mobility to the detriment of European consumers” declared Wil Botman, Director General of the FIA European Bureau. “European consumers would have to wait another three years in order to pick up the benefits of the proposed regulation” added Wil Botman.

After the European Parliament’s Environment Committee overwhelming support of the proposed regulation, the compromise comes as a disappointment.

“The European Union has set itself an ambitious but realistic CO2 target for 2012. Most technologies needed to achieve this target exist and need to be further spread-out on the market. The compromise is an unnecessary step back at the expense of the European consumers who are looking for fuel-efficient cars” said Wil Botman.

Note to editors

The FIA, the world’s leading motoring and touring organisation, represents via its affiliated members, national motoring and touring organisations, over 100 million motorists worldwide and 34 million motorists in the European Union. Europe’s motoring and touring organisations have as their highest priority to put their members’ interests at the centre of Europe’s sustainable mobility policy in order to make mobility more sustainable, i.e. more reliable, cleaner and safer while keeping it affordable for all.

In this respect, the motoring and touring organisations help motorists to improve the energy efficiency of their cars by for example offering fuel-efficient driving courses (eco-driving) and by providing information on the fuel-efficiency of cars.

The FIA showed, in 2007, how crucial the European Commission’s proposed regulation is to attain the European overall emissions reduction target. The then presented CO2 model confirmed that, while the needed technologies are available, the European Union would miss its 2012 CO2 emission target in a “business as usual” scenario. The model developed by FIA German member motoring and touring organisation ADAC is based on extensive data research on existing vehicle fleets registered between 2001 and 2006. It extrapolates the information in order to develop market evolution scenarios. The model examines the effect of different factors such as the share of different fuel types, consumer demand patterns, and technological developments, on the average fleet emissions by 2012.

For more information please contact: Olivier Lenz - Tel. +32 2 282 08 25