by David Finlay, July 9, 2007, CARkeys (UK)

Plans to reduce European CO2 levels to an average of 130g/km by 2012 (see previous feature) are being regarded as impossible by car manufacturers - though to a certain extent it depends on their nationality.

The most optimistic are the French and the Italians, who tend to build smaller and therefore more economical cars. According to industry analyst JATO Dynamics, French manufacturers have achieved an average of 149g/km so far in 2007, while the Italians have got down to 147g/km.

Both have improved their CO2 performances over the last few years (in 2004 their figures were 153g/km and 150g/km respectively) and are likely to continue doing so. Renault, for example, is making a big deal of its eCO2 programme, of which the recently-announced bioethanol Renault Megane E85 is a part.

With the new Bravo, Fiat is embarking on a new strategy of providing small engines with varying levels of turbocharging so as to keep CO2 levels down as far as possible while still offering a choice of power outputs (see our feature on The Rise Of The Small Engine ).

Volkswagen is going down the same route as Fiat, and is also starting to sell exceptionally economical, low-CO2 versions of several of its cars under the name of Bluemotion. And another German manufacturer, BMW, is devoting great efforts to lowering CO2 levels through its EfficientDynamics programme.

However, German cars are on average larger, more powerful and less economical than French or Italian ones, and the result, as reported by JATO, is that Germany’s overall CO2 figure for the first half of 2007 is 171g/km. It would take more than a revision of details for this to be reduced to 130g/km in five years.

Read more of the CARKeys article.