Second rate
August 18, 2011
German car producers should steer away from increasingly complicated luxury and sports features and hit the accelerator towards climate protection, says the Verkehrsclub Deutschland (VCD), a German association promoting sustainable traffic policies.
The VCD's latest study comparing the eco-friendliness of cars sold on the German market in saw just one German model make it into the top 10. The other nine were Japanese cars, with hybrid models performing particularly well.
The Lexus compact CT 200h took the top ranking with its fuel consumption of 3.8 liters per 100 kilometers and CO2 ouput of 87 grams per kilometer
Second place went to last year's winner, the Toyota Prius, followed by the same brand's compact iQ 1.0 WT-I model.
The most environmentally friendly German car in the list was Volkswagen's Polo 1.2 TDI BlueMotion, which took place seven.
The only German segment winner was the bigoas-fuelled version of the VW Touran, which topped the seven-seater category.
The VCD took several factors into account for their eco-list: CO2 emissions (accounted for 60 percent), noise (20 percent), polluting effect on human beings (15 percent) and the pollution of nature through nitrogen (5 percent).
Wheels of change
The VCD is now calling on the government to introduce stricter rules on carbon emissions, saying this would increase pressure on the German auto industry to focus more on efficient cars and less on the luxury vehicles that are its traditional mainstay.
"It's not enough to focus on the premium segment only, even if - like last year - you can earn a lot of money with it," VCD spokesman Gerd Lottsiepen told dpa. "Heavy, luxury limousines are bad for the climate."
Germany's powerful VDA automotive industry association reacted quickly by presenting its own figures that suggest German manufacturers are doing more to boost fuel efficiency than foreign companies.
The VDA said that the average carbon emission from a new German-made car was 146 grams per kilometer in July 2011 – roughly 5 percent less than one year earlier. Emissions from imported models sold on the German market only fell 3.8 percent.
"This clearly shows how German producers lead the way when it comes to fuel efficiency," VDA President Matthias Wissmann said in a statement sent to Deutsche Welle by email.
The premium segment in particular was improving, he said, adding that new company cars in Germany were becoming increasingly environmentally friendly. In the first half of 2011, CO2 emissions in this segment were cut by 5.2 percent to 149.3 grams per kilometer compared with 151.6 grams for imported models.
"It's a sign that fleet managers are increasingly making fuel efficiency a priority when ordering new cars," Wissmann said.
Hybrid future
The European Commission aims to reduce the amount of CO2 emitted by new cars to an average limit of 130 grams per kilometer within four years. Its target for 2020, is just 95 grams. "That's the minimum we have to reach," said Lottsiepen, who believes even 80 grams would be possible.
VCD recommends buying hybrid cars, which use an electric motor to support a combustion engine. "The German industry missed out on the hybridization of the industry for a long time," Lottsiepen said. Now, German big cars are being retrofitted in a first step.
Author: Nina Haase
Editor: Sam Edmonds