Zetsche: EU C02 Goals Unattainable
The European Union's goal of reducing C02 emissions to 120g/km is not attainable by the 2012 target date, says Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche. Speaking to Wirtschaftswoche, and reported by Auto Motor und Sport , Dr Z says "sixty percent of the vehicles which we will sell in 2012 are already in the factories and are going to customers on the market." With C02 averages currently at 170g/km, Zetsche says it will take another seven years to prepare a new generation of vehicles, leaving EU goals out of reach within the current timeframe. Zetsche also reveals that Daimler will be sticking to its guns on alternative energy development, vowing to push for greater acceptance of hydrogen fuel cells where the automaker has sunk considerable R&D efforts. Zetsche acknowledges that "The last open question is: will there be a universally available hydrogen infrastructure, where will the hydrogen come from, and what will be the energy savings?" Big questions indeed for a company facing tough carbon goals in a short timeframe.
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Menno . . . I fail to see how the Lexus Hybrid getting 185 g/km is in any way an argument in favor, as it still misses the standard by over 50%. It's a long, long way from 185 to 120. In fact, it kinda supports Zetsche . . . even with a hybrid, they still can't even get close to the standard. Also, I'm not sure of the point of the comment on the 1.3L Audi A3 . . . in short, so what? Sure it can be done, but can it be done for the entire fleet? Where's the 120 gm/km A8?
dkulmacz, I think I made the same mistake earlier in assuming that "every" vehicle had to be under 120. I don't think that is the case. Perhaps someone in Europe can clear that up for us. My point was that the London Congestion Charge allows the hybrid technology to be used in a large, luxury car and still allows a Londoner to only be charged 8 pounds a day (ouch) instead of 25 pounds a day (way worse ouch) for a conventional luxury car. As an aside, I AM going to laugh myself sick when it turns out that Al Gore & all the earth-religion freak-followers all over Europe spend themselves into an economic slump over this global warming new religion. Because these folks have to have more "faith" in their ersatz religion than Christians do in ours; we have 2000 years of history. The earth-religionists who follow Al and the like, have a few scientists who will probably be proved very, very wrong in about two years. Guess we'll see if the solar flares come back by that time and if they do, we can thank God for the lucky break. Otherwise, Maunder Minimum and global COOLING will be the order of the day. Just as happened in the little ice age 1370-1812. Apparently we've lost the entire century of temperature increases worldwide in ONE YEAR. Before you think I'm some idjit who drives a 9 gallon per mile SUV, no. I drive a Prius. It's called good stewardship of resources.
... and more importantly, where is the customer for a 1.3L A8??? You can force the manufacturer to produce, but you can't force the customer to buy.....
All of this is, of course completely unnecessary. Rabid Rick was right about something after all... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/04/09/do0907.xml