Emission obsession
Is the obsession with emissions strangling our passion?
Not everyone is as obsessed with CO2 emissions as the EU. In Russia, for instance, Land Rover’s Range Rover Sport has been doing great business – 22,000 were sold in 2007 alone, 80 per cent of which were Supercharged versions. No concerns about tailpipe CO2 in Russia, then.
Meanwhile, Bentley recently announced that it is working on a radical new powertrain, due in 2012, that will reduce emissions by 40 per cent. Most people took this to mean a diesel engine is on the cards, but Bentley R&D head Dr Ulrich Eichhorn revealed to evo that a diesel would only cut emissions by 25 per cent, and a hybrid by just 15, intimating that the solution would be something not available today.
And EU CO2 reduction plans have put serious pressure on Porsche. By 2015 a Cayenne S will be subject to a £7500 tailpipe-emissions fine as it leaves the factory. No wonder the company has recently admitted it has a hybrid 911 in development, ready to join the Cayenne and Panamera hybrids due late-2009 – but even these won’t meet the proposed EU 130g/km CO2 target…
