EU News
Target agreed for cleaner, greener cars
On 25th September the Environment Committee of the European Parliament adopted the report of Guido Sacconi on CO2 emissions from cars. In effect this means the Environment Committee has backed the European Commission's target of an average of 120g of CO2/km for the whole car industry by 2012. Industry representatives had wanted the target to be phased in on a longer timescale.
European carmakers are investing heavily in clean technology and this decision reinforces this. The ground-breaking Toyota Prius has emissions of 104g of CO2/km; that figure is becoming more the norm as clean diesel models and other hybrids keep raising the bar.
This is all good news, but more needs to be done to encourage ‘eco-driving’ techniques. Driving sensibly with the environment in mind makes a huge difference. Technologies like cruise control, gear-shift indicators, tyre pressure indicators and others can help a lot.
Daytime Running Lights to be brought in across EU
Should you leave your running lights on in daylight? There has always been debate about whether this is worth it in road safety terms. Some Scandinavian countries have been doing it for years, other continental countries have banned it in the past. Overall the research shows that it does save lives, and the EU now agrees.
From 7th February 2011 onwards, all new cars in Europe will have Daytime Running Lights as standard. This will be LED-type lights that are environmentally efficient; one of the criticisms of Daytime Running Lights had been that they worsen fuel consumption.