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Porsche to sue EU over "naive" CO2 standards

 
4 1,401 views Sep 17, 2007
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Porsche to sue EU over "naive" CO2 standards

Porsche to sue EU over "naive" CO2 standards

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European leaders have recently come out in support of proposed EU CO2 standards that aim to cut average CO2 emissions for new vehicles from the present limit of 160g/km by 25% to 120g/km. Porsche does not believe its cars would be able to meet such a standard, and has threatened to take legal action if the EU does pass the new law, reports AFP.

Porsche, however, stressed that such legal action was only theoretical at this point, with any legal action occurring only after a visit to the EU commission to make its case on the grounds that such a law would violate fair trade principles within the EU. Nevertheless, Porsche's cars, such as the 911 Turbo pictured above, currently produce an average of 289g/km CO2, and would not be able to meet the new target by the 2012 deadline. In such a case the automaker would be forced to take legal action.

Wendelin Wiedeking, Porsche's CEO, told the German business newspaper Handelsblatt he thought the proposed standards were "completely naive" adding that "realistically emissions can only be graded by vehicle segment." To do otherwise, says Porsche, would favor economy car companies over sports car companies.



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Comments (4)

  1. By James Posted: 9/17/2007 1:14pm PDT

    Memo to Wendelin Wiedeking,
    The global warming alarmists own the governments on both side of the pond. They won't be happy until the next 911 is powered by the sun and the Cayenne can be run on H2O, so you better get your engineers hopping.
     
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  2. By Gus Posted: 9/17/2007 6:52pm PDT

    It is getting a little tight, no question.
    However, I hate to admit it, but the only way to get car companies to force new technology into the light is by passing a law. It works that way with safety as well as emissions. If it weren't for some push, we would still not have catalytic converters or many of the new safety and emission technologies we take for granted today.
     
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  3. By johnnyBoy Posted: 9/19/2007 1:37am PDT

    The CEO of porsche is absolutely right, you can't just have a blanket average requirement without taking in the category of car. Creating categories would encourage automakers to make all of their cars more efficient, not just add a few economy models to their lineup to keep emission averages down.
     
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  4. By NaBUru38 Posted: 9/19/2007 7:27pm PDT

    The single threshold is ridiculous. To put many maximums by car category is't that easy: how do you sort them? By weight, size, engine? A SLK 55 AMG is only 15 cm longer than the Polo 1.4 TDI but is 50% heavier and its average fuel consumption is three times the Polo's. If you sort by length, you kill the SLK 55 AMG. The other way round would make automakers do heavier cars (or put larger engines) to evade emission limits.

    I would instead charge thirstier cars with heavier taxes. In other words, Ferrari, Porsche, Hummer and Jaguar pay Fiat and Citroën for having a dirtier lineup.
     
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