Car makers make emissions pledge to EC

30/06/2006 | Bron: Energy Saving Trust

Leading car manufacturers are lobbying the European Commission (EC) to offer better tax incentives for biofuel-powered and other low-emission vehicles.

Volkswagen and Fiat chiefs approached ministers, including the enterprise and industry commissioner Gunter Verheugen last week, while the European Association of Automobile Manufacturers is working on detailed proposals for a graduated scheme.

Plant-based biofuels such as ethanol and bio-diesel produce a fraction of the CO2 emissions that petrol or diesel-powered cars emit. So-called 'second generation' technologies gleaned from Brazilian sugar beet can cut emissions by as much as 90 per cent.

Chief executive of Volkswagen, Bernd Pischetsrieder, argued that current tax breaks, such as those in the UK and the Netherlands where a set proportion of biofuel in petrol could earn a discount, were discouraging progress toward more carbon efficient technologies.

"We are getting completely the wrong incentives," he told the Financial Times. "Technology with a higher efficiency for biofuels [should be] more incentivised."

Carmakers are trying to introduce a scheme giving individual governments freedom to impose their own rules, since a unified plan is likely to come up against opposition.

The Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership in the UK is working on a scheme to certify biofuels in terms of their environmentally-friendly manufacture.