[Jason]

BMW is well on its way to meeting the C02 emissions standards set by the European Union which auto manufacturers must reach by year 2015. BMW only needs to reduce its fleet emissions by 8 percent to reach its target of 139g/km (from 151g/km in 2009). Per Autonews:

Toyota, PSA, Fiat and BMW set to achieve EU CO2 targets

New technologies, shift to smaller cars help automakers
Luca Ciferri November 10, 2010 06:01 CET

Toyota, PSA/Peugeot-Citroen, Fiat and BMW are on course to meet EU CO2 reduction targets ahead of schedule, a report says.

Toyota faces the lowest percentage reduction – just 4 percent in six years -- to reach its EU target of average fleet emissions of 127 grams per kilometer by 2015.

Last year Toyota was Europe's second “greenest” automaker with average CO2 emissions from its new car fleet of 132g/km, just 1g/km behind Fiat's average of 131g/km.

Toyota is the best placed among automakers to reach its 2015 target, according to the Brussels-based green transport campaigners Transport & Environment, which analyzed official EU data.

PSA comes second – it has to reduce emissions by 5 percent from 136g/km in 2009 to a target of 129g/km by 2015.

Fiat must cut another 10g/km – or 8 percent – to reach its target of 121g/km by 2015, the lowest among automakers as the Italian automaker, which sells mainly small cars, has the lightest average weight for its models at 1,136kgs compared to an 1,337 kg overall average last year.

BMW is No. 11 in a list of automakers ranked by CO2 emissions but it has to reduce emissions by only 8 percent to reach its 2015 target of 139g/km from 151g/km in 2009.

To reduce the amount of CO2 emissions, a gas blamed for climate change, the EU set automakers individual CO2 reduction targets as part of a goal to cut average new-car emissions in Europe overall to 130g/km by 2015 from 160g/km in 2006 The EU threatens heavy fines for companies that fail to reach their targets.

The 130g/km figure is equivalent to fuel consumption of about 5.6 liters of gasoline or 5.0 liters of diesel fuel per 100 km.

Pressed by French and German automakers, the EU also introduced also a weight-based system that sets individual targets for each automaker.

Last year, automakers in Europe reduced average CO2 emissions by 5.1 percent to 147.5g/km from 153.6g/km in 2008.

New engine technologies and a sales mix that shifted towards lighter and smaller vehicles helped automakers to reduce CO emissions, T&E said.

“The financial crisis and government scrappage schemes played their role in reducing sales average CO2/km by shifting demand to cheaper cars, which are typically smaller and pollute less, but our analysis suggests that actually at least half of the reductions in 2009 were achieved through better drivetrain technology”, T&E said in a report.

The study showed that the average 5.1 percent reduction in CO2 emissions was achieved by 2.7 percent with more fuel efficient technology, by 1.8 percent through reducing weight and by 0.6 percent by reducing engine performance.

Toyota, Suzuki and Daimler appear to be the manufacturers which achieved the most progress through better technology rather than by selling more small cars.

In Toyota's 10 percent reduction in CO2 emissions in 2009, better technology contributed 7 percent. At Suzuki, 6 percent of the 9.1 percent improvement came from better technology. At Daimler, the entire 5 percent efficiency improvement came from improved technology.

AT BMW and Renault none of the 1.8 percent CO2 emission reductions reported by the two automakers resulted from better technology.



Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dl...#ixzz14uRntEQH (subscription required)

[maxzander]

awesome