KEY POINTS:
Carmakers pushed the green theme to new levels at the Frankfurt motor show. Organiser the German Auto Association set the tone by offering eco-drinks at the bio-fuel bar, where those supping organic concoctions were shown how to save fuel. Opel, the German arm of General Motors, launched its electric Flextrem car while serving eco-food washed down with bionade. Volkswagen handed out organic hamburgers to go with organic red wine. A Frankfurt transport company got in the race for cleaner power by offering free rides in a 19th century-style horse and buggy.
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Much of the talk on car stands was about meeting strict new carbon dioxide emissions laws due in 2012. The European Union's environment commissioner Stavros Dimas plans to impose a legal limit on exhaust CO2 of 120g for every kilometre driven. At present it is 160g/km. Stavros warned European carmakers they would face sanctions if they failed to meet the new emissions target. But the industry's chief executives want the EU to be more flexible and push the cut-off date out to 2015. Porsche chief executive Wendelin Wiedeking said the target was wholly alien and breached the laws of physics. Anybody demanding inflexible targets for all was attacking the German car industry, said Wiedeking. On average, Porsche models emit more than 300g/km.
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Deiter Zetsche, Daimler CEO, believes the industry can eventually improve on the 120g/ km target. Zetsche is rebuilding Daimler and its flagship Mercedes-Benz after the split with Chrysler. Zetsche said his company could cut CO2 while maintaining the traditional strengths of the brand It would make the diesel engine as clean as the petrol engine and the petrol engine as fuel-efficient as diesel. BMW chief Norbert Reithofer said his company would by 2008 reduce CO2 emissions from its fleet by 25 per cent from 1995 levels. Mercedes-Benz and BMW are expected to start work soon on joint projects.
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John Fleming, the president of Ford of Europe, said the cost of producing cleaner cars would be high. Only so much cost could be absorbed and the customer, who increasingly wanted low-cost, low-emissions cars, would have to pay for some of it, he said at the launch of a new econetic range of Focus and Mondeo models.
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The EU's green label system rates the CO2 exhaust emissions of cars. There's only one that falls into the cleanest A category of under 100g/km and that's VW's new BlueMotion diesel Polo, which will soon be available in New Zealand. It emits 99g/km. The Toyota Prius and Honda Civic hybrids slot into category B, where CO2 output is between 101 and 120g/km. VW is having two bob each way. It owns the companies that built two of the worst CO2 offenders, the Lamborghini Murcielago LP460 Coupe (495g/km) and the Bentley Azure Convertible (465g/km). Both cars are in G category of more than 225g/km.
New Zealand doesn't have an exhaust emissions standard and few of the cars on our roads meet the present 160g/km EU standard.
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New vehicle sales in New Zealand so far this year are up on a buoyant 2006, cars by 1.6 per cent and commercials by 4.1 per cent. Perry Kerr, CEO of the Motor Industry Association, said it was a competitive market out there and clearly consumers were responding to the value on offer. More than 6800 new vehicles were sold in August. The country's best-selling car remains the Holden Commodore but Toyota leads the overall sales race ahead of Ford and Holden. Expect Toyota to close out 2007 with celebratory deals - this year will be its 20th in a row at the top of the sales charts.
