Quote:

A no-deal Brexit could cost the UK automotive industry at least £3 billion in CO2-related fines, Autocar has learned.

The costs represent the fines that would be racked up by the 40-plus manufacturers operating in the UK and who would fall foul of the 95g/km fleet average CO2 figure, which the government has pledged to implement unilaterally if the UK goes-it-alone in October.

A spokesman for the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said: “The European CO2 Directive allows manufacturers flexibility to balance their emissions performance across all relevant European markets. A no deal Brexit would, however, remove this flexibility, which may make reduction targets far harder for some manufacturers, given the UK model mix may differ from a European average.
“If this meant additional fines were to be levied on UK companies, the effects could be hugely damaging, reducing consumer choice, undermining competitiveness and restricting future R&D spend. This is yet more evidence of the severe consequences for the British automotive industry from a disorderly Brexit - no deal must be ruled out immediately.” Although the concept of the UK adopting the 95g/km CO2 average has been well-flagged – it was a key element in government No Deal Brexit planning documents – the impact on individual car-makers and the industry as a whole is only just starting to emerge.

The significant issue is that the UK fleet average figure would be based purely on UK sales, making it less likely for sales of heavier cars with larger engines, especially the growing mix of SUVs models, to be balanced out by cheaper, lower polluting city cars and superminis.

One mass-market manufacturer that Autocar spoke to has carried out an internal audit of its annual new car sales and calculated its fleet mix of petrol, diesel, hybrid and electrified models would rack up around £100m in fines.

Paul J. wrote:

So what is your solution to global warming?

Getting rid of dino-burning cars to replace them with EVs using electricity from dino-fuelled power stations isn't it, that's for sure.

Hammering the car manufacturer and buyer, before putting in place the systems to allow them to improve, isn't helping anyone other than the Exchequer.

First we need the grid to be improved to enable lots of juicy amps to flow where they will be needed to support EVs, then we need to replace our dino-fuelled generation systems with renewables (although we have to make sure we don't use too much concrete, as that industry is a jolly good producer of CO2 - tricky to make nuclear or tidal without lots of concrete).
Then we need to limit transport of stuff around the place in ships and planes. Lots of nasty CO2 from them.

We probably also need to limit meat production. It has been claimed (https://timeforchange.org/eat-less-meat-co2-emission-of-food) that producing 1kg of beef also produces 13kg of CO2 - or about 56km/35m of driving in my RRS SDV6. So I can have a steak or I can drive to town and back for the same environmental detriment.

And lastly, or perhaps firstly would be better, we need to limit the world's human population.

So, in summary, we need to have fewer people, who all eat locally produced mostly vegetarian/vegan diets, limit their personal transport, and live in zero carbon homes. Oh, and we need to persuade 7 billion others (well, actually probably only 3 billion (China, India, the US and the EU as they, particularly the first three, are the big CO2 producers) to do the same thing.

Or we could just implement a system that makes cars expensive but makes a few quid to allow tax breaks for those who don't need them.

Paul J. wrote:

So what is your solution to global warming?

Reintroduce the Plague or Black Death

RRSTDV8 wrote:

Paul J. wrote:

So what is your solution to global warming?

Getting rid of dino-burning cars to replace them with EVs using electricity from dino-fuelled power stations isn't it, that's for sure.

We are becoming less reliant on dino-fuelled power stations: http://gridwatch.co.uk/

Paul J. wrote:

We are becoming less reliant on dino-fuelled power stations: http://gridwatch.co.uk/

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