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Volkswagen and Porsche say they are committed to making environmentally friendly cars, despite a report showing carbon dioxide emissions of newly registered cars in Germany fell only 0.5 per cent in 2006.
In an interview that appeared in Spiegel magazine yesterday VW boss Martin Winterkorn said that each
model series would have an eco-version in future. "We call it Blue Motion. We've begun with the Passat and the Polo. We'll continue with the Golf."
The VW Polo 1.4 TDI PD Blue Motion is the ninth-most environmentally sound car according to Swiss Transport Club VCS, based on emissions of CO2, pollutants and noise.
The greenest model is judged to be the Honda Civic 1.3i-DSI Hybrid, with the top eight in the club's list occupied by Japanese or French carmakers.
Carmakers in Germany - where drivers are known for their love of powerful cars - do not offer a single full such hybrid, which combine electric motors and batteries with standard combustion engines to cut fuel use.
Winterkorn said VW's Audi brand had been too early to market with its Audi duo hybrid series in the 1990s. "At that time the market was obviously not yet ripe. We only sold a few hundred of them," he said.
Volkswagen had the first of a new set of hybrid cars in testing and the first models should be on the market next year, he added.
Winterkorn defended VW's 12-cylinder diesel Bugatti sports car, which he said would use an average 11.9 litres of fuel per 100km when it comes onto the market. That compares with 4.6 litres per 100km for the Honda Civic Hybrid.
"Is that a catastrophe? Should we all drive Trabis in future?" he asked, referring to the two-cylinder Trabant cars which were a symbol of communist East Germany.
Asked about European Union proposals to cut CO2 emissions, Winterkorn said he favoured limits set by vehicle class rather than by manufacturer.
The EU wants to cut CO2 emissions for new passenger cars to a maximum of 120 grammes per kilometre by 2012, down from an average level of 186 grammes in 2004.
European carmakers say the proposed measures would damage the economy.
Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking also defended his company's green record. "We are not waste merchants," he said.
He said the EU's proposals would put top-end carmakers such as Porsche out of business. "We already once had Trabi-dominance in one part of Germany. Socialism would then find a joyful resurrection on our street."
The firm plans to sell a hybrid version of its Cayenne offroader by 2010.
- REUTERS