11/10/08

European Sports Car Manufacturers in danger of becoming Outlawed

EU Emission Standards

As the European Union is threatening to make the emissions screw even tighter, European Sports Cars Manufacturers become more and more worried about the future.

As we all know, whether its a Ferrari, Maseratti or a Lamborghini, it still has up to three times the emissions of a normal car. With Proposals from the EU that targets 120 gr/km in 2012 (compared to 160gr/now) the sports  car manufacturers are trying to make themselves heard. One card to play is rumored to be a tax exemption for the manufacturers that have less than 10.000 units/year (Aston, for example, hopes to have 7.500 this year) but that would be worthless for such as Lamborghini or Ferrari who are owned by larger groups (Fiat sells around 1.2 million cars each year).

Voices at Lamborghini talk about the preservation of European art that talks about the continent to the world, and so it must be protected, since emissions of 120gr/km for a V12 is not likely to happen.

Ferrari on the other hand talks about the fact that hybrid solutions will take much more time to become accepted by their clients, and that the ” less than 10.000 units/year exemption” would be nothing else than discrimination.

Also, the fact that supercar owners only take them out on rare occasions, and the number of supercars selled each year represents an insignificant percent of total car sales, is also brought to the table of negociations.

These dispute is likely to scale up to greater heights in the near future, between Sports Cars Manufacturers on one hand, The EU and Environmentalists on the other, as solutions seem to be scarce.

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