Carmakers slammed for weight-based approach to CO2 cuts 

Although stakeholders largely agree on the need to reduce CO2 emissions from cars, they remain deeply divided about how the system should work in practice and, in particular, how the market-wide average of 130g/km should be split among the different manufacturers and models. 

The automotive industry recently called for a system with differentiated caps according to vehicles' weight, enabling heavier cars, such as SUVs and luxury models – which it says respond to consumer demand – to exceed the 130g/km target. 

However, the European Federation for Transport and Environment, on 29 August, issued a statement calling on MEPs to reject this option when they vote on the strategy in September, claiming that it would lead to more road deaths and higher emissions. 

Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen  suggested earlier in August that the Commission could be considering a system where larger cars are allowed to exceed the 130g/km target, telling the German paper Bild am Sonntag: "The limit value cannot be the same for each car [model]." 

But he dismissed the idea that the EU's executive had already made up its mind to base calculations on weight, saying that eight options were currently being examined in greater detail. 

The European Federation for Transport and Environment (T&E) points out that, while making vehicles lighter is "one of the most important and straightforward ways of cutting CO2 emissions…linking CO2 standards to weight removes the main incentive to make a car lighter because doing so would result in that model receiving a tougher CO2 standard". 

It further adds that heavier cars are more likely to cause severe injury and death for pedestrians in the event of an accident. 

"If you take away the main incentive for losing weight, you're going to get more fat cars, which will kill more people, guzzle more fuel and pump out more emissions," said T&E Director Jos Dings. 

The NGO instead says that, if CO2 standards are to differ "temporarily" depending on the class of car, calculations should be based on a car's "footprint", ie the area between the four wheels. 

Such a system, it claims, would leave the door open to fully exploit weight reduction technologies, without any negative impact on vehicle safety as it is not the weight, but rather the size of a car that makes it safer. 

However, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) rejected these arguments, saying that evidence from China and Japan, where the weight-based system is already being used, shows that such a calculation method does not give an incentive to make heavier vehicles. 

"The 130g/km average target is so ambitious that even heavier cars will have to reduce their emissions significantly," ACEA spokeswoman Sigrid de Vries told EurActiv. 

She contested the idea that heavier cars are more dangerous, saying that the reason they are heavier is often precisely to comply with strict safety standards. She also underlined the fact that all cars, whether heavy or light, must comply with the same crash tests. 

"Weight is likely to be the best parameter to distribute the cap among industry. It will safeguard diversity for consumers, it is simple, very measurable, easy to monitor and it is already in use in China and Japan, which is important, because we do not want different systems everywhere in the world," she said. 

On the other hand a "footprint" system appeared rather complicated, she said: "We are really looking for a system that is workable." 

British EPP-ED MEP Malcolm Harbour, who co-chairs a debate forum called Automobile and society, told Automotive News Europe on 20 August: "There is some consensus that a weight-based target system looks to be sensible."