The European Commission has unveiled tough new pollution controls for four-wheel-drive cars [SUVs] that could drive some American models from the European market altogether.
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A commission spokesman admitted to the Daily Telegraph that Brussels was “deliberately” setting out to raise the cost of buying such “gas-guzzlers”, following the principle of “polluter pays”.
For the car industry, Ivan Hodac, the secretary general of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, told the paper the draft emissions regulations would hit buyers hard. “You could be looking at €1,800 to €2,000 [£1,200 to £1,330] extra. The larger the engine, the more the cost goes up,” said Hodac. For the largest models “it might not be technically possible” to meet the new standards.
But Gregor Kreuzhuber, the commission’s industry spokesman, reportedly said it was “unfair” that “environmentally friendly, smaller cars have to comply with strict standards and the gas-guzzlers congesting our streets get away with standards that are less ambitious”.
The Daily Telegraph said new rules would close a loophole by which four-wheel-drives weighing more than two-and-a-half tons are considered to be “light commercial vehicles”, which have to meet much weaker emission and pollution controls than passenger cars.
The draft rules will now be opened to public comment. If approved by the European Parliament and national governments, the new controls could be law by mid-2008, the report added.
