The European Union is preparing to introduce tough new rules on car advertising, forcing manufacturers to include conspicuous and easily understood information about petrol consumption and emissions. The new line follows the EU's decision to exert ever-greater control on the way that tobacco, alcohol and food products can be advertised, counterbalancing the claims and sales lines of advertisers with warnings about the health implications of their products. Details of the proposal to compel car manufacturers to own up to the carbon footprint of their vehicles will be unveiled by the end of the month, after which the politicians and car industry representatives will discuss them for the first time. As well as spelling out the environmental implications of the cars, the draft regulations are said by Der Spiegel magazine to require manufacturers to put a brake on the prose and the images used to imprint the desirability of their latest models. Any reference to sportiness will apparently be frowned on.The target of the new rules is obviously the gas-guzzler, and as the country that produces the great majority of Europe's luxury cars - including those driven by the chauffeurs of most European Commissioners - the German industry is already up in arms about the restrictions.
The European Union is preparing to introduce tough new rules on car advertising, forcing manufacturers to include conspicuous and easily understood information about petrol consumption and emissions.
The new line follows the EU's decision to exert ever-greater control on the way that tobacco, alcohol and food products can be advertised, counterbalancing the claims and sales lines of advertisers with warnings about the health implications of their products.
Details of the proposal to compel car manufacturers to own up to the carbon footprint of their vehicles will be unveiled by the end of the month, after which the politicians and car industry representatives will discuss them for the first time. As well as spelling out the environmental implications of the cars, the draft regulations are said by Der Spiegel magazine to require manufacturers to put a brake on the prose and the images used to imprint the desirability of their latest models. Any reference to sportiness will apparently be frowned on.
The target of the new rules is obviously the gas-guzzler, and as the country that produces the great majority of Europe's luxury cars - including those driven by the chauffeurs of most European Commissioners - the German industry is already up in arms about the restrictions.
Is any manufacturer willing to say that it wants to hide the emissions of its cars? Or to say that emissions are a good thing?
This should be a no brainer. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
What they never mentioned was that it became CO2 in next to no time and had little effect on the streetside atmosphere.
But it was cheaper to install catalytic converters than to seriously change the way petrol is burnt in cars to remove NO, NO2, SO, SO2, which are pretty noxious at all times. Nobody mentioned that.
Score for the industry. keep to the Fen Causeway
Or to say that emissions are a good thing?
Well, they don't need to be. In a hydrogen based transportation economy the emissions, water, could easily be collected during transport and then released where it is most valuable. It may not be worth doing in most climates but remains a possibility. As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
