Brussels, 24/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - Car manufacturers can be misleading over promised fuel savings with new cars, reveals an investigation by the Italian member of the European consumers' organisation BEUC. On the two models of car tested, manufacturers claimed 20-50% greater efficiency than is the case in reality. This could mean spending of almost €500 per year more in fuel than what is claimed in the advertising. BEUC Director General Monique Goyens says that it is consumers who pay the price for what is “essentially a company's green marketing trick”. BEUC believes that car manufacturers are exploiting grey areas in vehicle fuel consumption tests. “The testing system from the 1970s is broken and urgently needs an update”, she argues. This, however, must go hand-in-hand with amendments to the car-labelling directive.
The chair of the European Parliament transport committee, Michael Cramer (Greens/EFA, Germany) went further after reading the report. He argues that, between now and 2017, more realistic test procedures of the fuel consumption of cars should be in place across Europe. He argues that “with misleading information consumers are unable to choose more efficient cars, which ultimately also undermines fair competition at the expense of innovative car producers”. (MD)