Drive to cut CO emissions keeps small cars on the road
Manufacturers focus on tiny city runabouts to meet the demand from regulators, not their customers, James Mackintosh reports
Strip away the glitz and glamour of the Geneva motor show and visitors this week will find the dominant theme is dowdy. Instead of overpowered sports cars and luxury limousines, many manufacturers are showing off tiny city cars.
Toyota, Peugeot, Volkswagen, Chevrolet and Renault all featured new small production or concept cars, following the lead taken by Fiat with its Panda a year ago. Ford is considering how to replace its ageing Ka, one of the smallest cars on the road, while the smallest car sold in any volume, the Smart, is being kept alive by DaimlerChrysler in spite of being a financial disaster.
Even BMW and Mercedes, better known for upmarket saloons, are courting small car buyers with their 1-Series and forthcoming B-Class hatchbacks. All this activity, however, is not prompted by a sudden surge in demand for small cars.
Sales of “supermini” cars, the size of the Peugeot 206, have been growing as financially strapped customers, particularly in Germany, Europe's largest market, trade down. But smaller cars have not been doing nearly as well. Instead, the pressure to produce small cars comes from Brussels where the European Commission demands that carmakers reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, identified as a cause of global warming, from their vehicles.
The quickest and easiest way to lower pollution is to sell more small cars, which are lighter and have small engines but also have tiny profit margins.
Fujio Cho, president of Toyota, the world's second-largest carmaker, said last week that the main reason for launching its Aygo was to meet carbon reduction targets not to boost profits. “Our primary concern relates to environmental issues,” he said. “We have very strong commitment to environmental aspects and this is part of that.”
Jurgen Schrempp, chief executive of DaimlerChrysler, is equally blunt about the importance of selling small cars to meet European emission targets. Daimler is drawing up a business plan for its Smart small car division, even as analysts call for its closure after estimated losses of �500m ($668m) last year.
“Smart is a low consumption vehicle which adds to our fleet emissions [efficiency], which is very important,” Mr Schrempp said in an interview last week.
The interest in small cars comes as manufacturers realise how hard it will be to meet voluntary targets agreed with the European Commission for lower CO emissions. The goal is to cut average CO output of new cars sold by 24 per cent to 140g per kilometre driven by 2008 for European manufacturers and 2009 for Asian producers. Manufacturers have so far met annual targets. But, they say, that was only possible because of the remarkable rise in sales of diesel engines, which are more efficient. Even if the 140g per km goal is reached, it will not be enough. Negotiations are due to start this year between carmakers and the Commission about the next step in reducing emissions. Brussels is keen to see a 120g per km level adopted as a target for 2012.
Motor executives are warning against such a step, which they say could only be achieved through heavy investment in new technologies and by forcing drivers to stop buying the biggest, heaviest vehicles. Both moves would damage an already financially stretched industry and push up the price of cars.
“One can't say that 120g per km is impossible,” says Georges Douin, head of product, strategic planning and international operations at Renault. “You can reach 120g per km with extra cost and time but not in 2012.”
Instead, the industry wants a change of approach. Rather than just making cars more efficient, it wants Brussels to pay attention to the way they are used.
“We are all mistaken when we are talking about the emissions of cars,” says Jean-Martin Folz, chief executive of PSA Peugeot Citroen, the French carmaker. “The problem which is completely overlooked is that it is not the car manufacturers who emit CO . . . it is the people who drive the cars. Their driving habits are much more important.”
He points out that buyers of gas-guzzling Ferraris probably produce a lot less CO than drivers of fuel-efficient diesel hatchbacks because the Ferrari spends most of its time in the garage. “Of course cars emit more or less,” he says. “But it is up to you to drive more or less.”
The Commission is waiting for formal talks to start this summer before it comments on whether it might accept a change in the type of goal. But visitors to Geneva are getting a taste of the impact a new could have on Europe's cars.
迷你车走俏日内瓦车展
抛开日内瓦车展的豪华荣光，参观者会发现，这个上周开幕的车展的主题却显得寒酸。众多汽车厂家没有带来马力强劲的运动跑车、豪华汽车，相反，都市迷你车大行其道。
丰田、标致、大众、雪佛兰、雷诺纷纷效仿菲亚特一年前率先推出“熊猫”车型，在车展上主推新款小型车或概念车。福特公司也在考虑如何以新款车型来代替日渐老化的Ka――目前市场上最小的车型之一。而戴姆勒-克莱斯勒生产的世界上体积最小的车型Smart，尽管亏损严重，该公司仍然在坚持生产。
甚至以高端豪华汽车著称的宝马和梅塞德斯公司，都在考虑以各自的1-系列和即将推出的B级掀背车来吸引小车型的顾客。不过，所有这些行为，都不是小车型的需求量突然暴涨所引发的。
随着各地尤其是欧洲最大的汽车市场德国，经济拮据的顾客购买能力降低，像标致206这么的超迷你汽车的销量持续增长。但是，体积更小的车型几乎并没有什么起色。
生产小型车的压力来自欧盟，欧盟委员会要求汽车厂商减少导致全球气候变暖的汽车二氧化碳排放量。
减少污染最快捷容易的办法就是多卖小型车，它们重量轻，引擎小，但利润空间也小。
世界第二大汽车制造商丰田公司总裁张富士夫（Fujio Cho）上周表示，该公司推出Avgo车型的主要原因是为了二氧化碳排放量达标，而不是为了提高利润。“我们首先考虑的是环境问题，”他说，“我们对环境有很强的责任感，推出这款车就是因为这个原因。”
戴姆勒-克莱斯勒公司首席执行官于尔根?施伦普（Jurgen Schremp）同样坦率地表达了销售小型车的重要性，这些小型车达到欧洲汽车尾气排放量标准。戴姆勒公司正在起草一份设立Smart车型部门的商业计划，尽管分析师们呼吁，Smart车型据估去年已亏损五亿欧元（合6.68亿美元），应当放弃。
“Smart是一款低耗能汽车，有助于降低我们汽车废气排放（效率），这很重要。”施伦普先生上周在接受采访时说。
汽车公司对小型车产生兴趣，是因为他们都意识到，很难自动达到欧盟委员会同意的二氧化碳低排放量目标。这一目标是，欧洲汽车厂商到2008年、亚洲汽车厂商到2009年，生产的新车排放量都要减少24%，行驶每公里排放140克二氧化碳。现在，汽车厂商已经实现年度达标。但是，他们说能够实现这点是因为使用柴油引擎的汽车销量增长，柴油引擎的燃烧效率高。不过即使如此，还没有达到每公里140克的标准。汽车厂商和欧盟委员会就降低排放量的下一阶段谈判将于今年开始。欧盟方面非常希望将每公里120克定为2012年的目标。
对此，汽车公司老总们警告说，只有投巨资开发新技术或强迫人们停止购买最大最重的汽车，才能实现这样的目标。而这两种方式都将伤害一个财务上已经捉襟见肘的产业，抬高汽车的价格。
雷诺公司负责产品、战略规划与国际运营的乔治?都昂（Georeges Douin）认为，“你不能说每公里120克不可能实现，你可以多花钱，多花时间达到每公里120克。但是2012年不行。”
与此相应，汽车业希望在达标的方式上有所变化。他们希望欧盟方面注意汽车使用的方式，而不仅仅是让汽车燃烧效率更高。
法国PSA标致-雪铁龙汽车公司首席执行官让-马丁?福尔兹（Jean-Martin Folz）认为：“我们讨论汽车排放量的时候都错了。”有一个问题完全被忽视了，那就是，排放二氧化碳的并不是汽车制造商……而是开车的人。他们的驾驶习惯对排放量来说重要的多。”
他指出，大量消耗汽油的法拉利汽车购买者，排放的二氧化碳很可能比使用高效柴油发动机的掀背车购买者少得多，因为法拉利汽车很多时候都停在车库里。“当然，汽车或多或少总是要排放废气的。”他说，“但这取决于你开车开得多还是少。”
欧盟委员正在等待今年夏天召开的正式会谈，之后，才会对其是否可能接受改变排放方式或者目标，做出评论。不过，日内瓦车展的参观者正在感受到某种新变化带给欧洲汽车的影响。
