Freeze on car engine CO2 improvements

[Deleted User]

Does anyone believe the new VED bands:

http://www.nextgreencar.com/news/7138/summer-budget-2015-new-car-and-fuel-tax-rates/

Will allow motor manufacturers to suspend engineering improvements to engine CO2 emissions? Bad for the environment but great if you consider that complexity under the hood could see the return in the UK of much simpler cheaper engines something that an old fashioned garage mechanic can repair without any need for a computer.
:eek:

motorguy

[Deleted User] wrote:

Does anyone believe the new VED bands:

http://www.nextgreencar.com/news/7138/summer-budget-2015-new-car-and-fuel-tax-rates/

Will allow motor manufacturers to suspend engineering improvements to engine CO2 emissions? Bad for the environment but great if you consider that complexity under the hood could see the return in the UK of much simpler cheaper engines something that an old fashioned garage mechanic can repair without any need for a computer.
:eek:

This may come as a surprise to you, but the worlds motoring industry does not revolve around what happens here on this island, so i dont think a tweak in our tax bands is going to matter a whole pile in the grand scheme of things

[Deleted User]

Hi Motorguy

Yes I agree could even be some EC regulation that forces improvements on the manufacturer. It just that my daughter has a beat up X reg 1999 Fiat that has an engine with loads of space around it something you don't see in new cars. When things go wrong the car is always repairable at very little cost.

If somebody could make a 1999 technology car something that might sell to the developing world why not sell it here? If the government has abandoned emissions incentives on cars why not.

AdrianC

motorguy wrote: »

This may come as a surprise to you, but the worlds motoring industry does not revolve around what happens here on this island, so i dont think a tweak in our tax bands is going to matter a whole pile in the grand scheme of things

Indeed.
UK new car sales 2014 - 2.5m
EU new car sales 2014 - 12.5m
Global new car sales 2014 - 79m

RichardD1970

All car manufacturers selling in the EU will have to have a fleet average CO2 of 95 grams by 2021 or face very expensive fines.

fred246

I think the budget was all about being popular. He was trying to appeal to motorists and the message he is sending is 'Forget all about CO2'. I think if you read all the comments after a story on global warming that is what people WANT to hear. I think a lot of people who were buying small economical cars will be a bit upset. Adds £140 a year to their motoring. Did the chancellor give any explanation for the change?

chrisw

The trouble is that more and more cars are falling into the current zero ved band. My Volvo has 181bhp but 99g CO2 and therefore zero road tax. The books had to be rebalanced at some point.

AdrianC

fred246 wrote: »

I think a lot of people who were buying small economical cars will be a bit upset. Adds £140 a year to their motoring.

Only if they buy those cars, new, after 2017.

Did the chancellor give any explanation for the change?

Oh, just that the current VED scheme is irretrievably broken, with the majority of new cars being zero-first-year, and an ever increasing proportion being zero or peanuts.

Johnmcl7

According to the table in that article, for new cars the difference in Co2 is going to be much larger than the current system. My previous car was a 170bhp diesel estate and ved was around £180, I replaced it with a similar 170bhp petrol estate which is £260 for the VED so £270 more over three years. Under the new system, the diesel would be £500 and the petrol even though it's nothing fancy would be a whopping £1200 so the cost of VED for the petrol is going to be a lot more than it is now.

I'm puzzled by still using CO2 figures for the first year's VED given there's been a lot of articles recently that show the push for lower CO2 was an error as the problem now is nitrous oxide emissions are too high particularly in city centres.

John

AdrianC

If your idea of this "nothing fancy" petrol estate includes a list price of £40k+, of course...

You're right that the wholesale move to diesel has caused high NOx, but by 2017 everything new'll be Euro6 emissions, so very low NOx. 0.08g/km. 2000's Euro3 standard was the first to cap NOx - at 0.5g/km, halved for Euro4 in 2005.

colino

Government legislation is always a factor in global car development, if it comes from important markets. When California developed/imposed its anti-smog laws, US companies bolted catalytic converters onto their ancient, inefficient V8s and everyone else had to do the same. Real, progressive engineering companies, like Honda, who had developed lean burn engines threw up their hands in horror, petitioned the senate and fell into line.
Now we have diesels spewing out more and more soot as they are stretched to become as powerful as their petrol cousins, but are now"modified" with dpfs and additional harmful chemicals to reduce the visible expulsions. Guess what? These even finer particulates are being recognised as more harmful to human health as they are more readily absorbed by the lungs.
Make no mistake, if a government can make money and is heavily lobbied by industry, it makes stupid, groundless laws. It has nothing to do with health, well-being or saving the planet.