a recent opinion poll conducted in five EU countries and sponsored by Friends of the Earth (FoE) shows that European citizens support measures to force carmakers to reduce the fuel consumption of the cars they produce by 25 per cent without delay; this would mean that auto makers would have to lower their average CO₂ emissions to 120 g/km. The poll shows that 87 percent of the interviewed people agreed with this statement. According to FoE, this shows that the European Parliament should vote for establishing the 120 g/km limit as soon as possible.

Other findings of this poll were that almost half of respondents said that automakers should be required to lower emissions. Also, two thirds believe that lowered fuel consumption would allow citizens to spend their money in other ways, which would help the economy (again, shocking). When asked what was the deciding factor when buying a car, fuel consumption was cited as the main factor (64 percent), followed by security (34 percent) and environmental credentials (26 percent).

TNS Opinion interviewed 5,000 citizens in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. A website has been launched to promote this campaign for less polluting cars. Find the complete summary of the poll after the jump. Continued

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Mercedes is not slacking when it comes to building concepts and releasing cleaner vehicles. But, in a fairly standard automotive move these days, while the engineers are working, the executives are complaining about patchworks. Speaking in Switzerland, Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche said that the variety of environmental regulations around the world are a big challenge to his company and all automakers. Automotive News (subs req’d) cites the EU’s goal of having new vehicles meet a 120 g/km limit of CO₂ while the U.S. is focusing its laws on fuel economy. Zetsche described the situation this way: “Our engineers sometimes feel as if they are forced to play European soccer on an American baseball diamond by Japanese sumo wrestling rules.” Zetsche singled out moving targets and different attribute qualifications as problems areas. “We’re not fighting against environmental regulations. Our ultimate goal is emission-free driving. It’s just that this ‘patchwork quilt’ of regulations doesn’t necessarily support us in getting there,” he said. Of course, Zetsche’s argument would be a lot more convincing if global automakers didn’t already sell different vehicles in different markets. They’ve been working within a patchwork for decades, sometimes one of their own design.

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