THE AUSTRALIAN CONSERVATION Fund (ACF) is calling for the Federal Government to make fuel efficiency standards mandatory for all new cars sold in Australia.
Seeking standards equivalent to “at least” those of Europe, ACF representative Gail Broadbent said the Government’s current requirement that all new cars bear a sticker outlining the vehicle’s economy and emissions figures is not enough.
“Australian cars should meet at least the European standard and should meet mandatory targets for alternative fuels on a greenhouse weighted basis, without favouring particular technologies or fuels,” Ms Broadbent said.
Ms Broadbent described the Australian car industry’s failure to meet voluntary efficiency targets in 1983, 1987 and 2000 as concerning, and said that the industry is again unlikely to meet a 2010 agreement to achieve an average fuel efficiency of 6.8 l/100km.
“Meanwhile new cars sold in Europe are already on average 40 percent more efficient than new cars sold in Australia – and standards in the EU are about to get tougher,” Ms Broadbent said.
A spokesperson for Anthony Albanese, Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, said that the Government is reviewing feedback from the industry and the public on the question of mandatory fuel efficiency targets.
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What Ms Broadbent doesn’t realise is that in Europe a Ford Fiesta 1.4 manual 5door is considered a family car (and has been for a long time), reason being are closer, more populated cities, smaller streets and higher fuel prices. Australia is completely different in so many ways it’s beyong comparison.
What background in he automotive field does she have to make such demands? She realises that such laws would effectively terminate the local car industry in one fell swoop?
I’m all for making cars more efficient in order to lower the cost of motoring to the consumer and to preserve fossile fuels & other resources, but the theory that Co2 emissions from cars causes global warming (or any climate change) is seriously flawed and has been debunked by more than a handful of scientists. I hope the government is smarter than blindly bowing to her demands ..but from previous experience I don’t think we have much hope, esp if Albanese is the decision maker.
Every change we have seen in the motoring sector in the last 2 years such as LCT increase and clarity in pricing legistlation was met with fierce resistance from just about every motoring body organisation & manufacturer who pleaded with the govt - and were completely ignored. If setting this new standard lifts Rudd’s profile amongst his ‘green faithful’ and his UN chums he’ll do it, regardless of the consquences to the Australian motoring sector.
…if we want to do something positive we should be making new cars cheaper & more accessible- even a new V8 Commodore is a lot kinder to the environment than that old, smoky, oil burning 4 cyl Magna pictured above!
@ Max_ST-R: I agree with nearly everything you said. Thanks, you saved me a lot of typing
One thing though. If they introduced a CAFE-style system like the US, they can still sell “petrol guzzlers” as long as they also sell efficient cars as well to even out the consumption. For each person that buys a Prius, Toyota has a free hit to sell a truck like a Tundra.
So for example, if the average here was set to 6.8L/100 kms, Ford would have to sell a Econetic Fiesta for each Falcon sold. But if it was enforced by legislation they could just jump straight to 6.8, they would have to start higher and slowly bring it down.
What do they want, a car with little greenhouse footprint or a car that is frugal?
If they want a car with a good footprint then they should at least do their studies properly and look at the whole vehicle life cycle, taking into account costs in production, assembling, selling, operating, maintaing and disposal.
They MUST also assess the environmental hazards caused by battery/electric cars, including the use of hazardous chemicals in the battery and the carbon footprint of coal power generation in Australia.
In my view the best car to have would be an Australian made LPG powered car like the LPG dedicated Ford Falcon.
Max_ST-R: Agreed with what you had to say.
The last thing our auto industry needs right now is people like this telling the government what to do. The scary part is they will probably listen to them.