The typical German reserve that produces yawn-inducing auto-show speeches went out the window during Volkswagen chairman Martin Winterkorn’s closing remarks at the VW Group Night preceding the 2014 Paris auto salon. An event that is usually a grandstand for new products and optimism became a plea to the assembled crowd to remember “what a gigantic engineering effort” is required by new C02-reduction targets in both Europe and the United States.
Winterkorn all but begged regulators to get off the industry’s back, saying that even more stringent emissions mandates proposed for after the year 2020 could ruin Europe’s economy and industrial future if companies aren’t given more time to adapt and develop affordable technology.
“Climate protection is not available free of charge,” blasted Winterkorn. “Every gram of reduction in [tailpipe] C02 costs us 100 million euros. Every gram!” VW has already publicly committed to cutting its European fleet’s C02 average to 95 grams/kilometer. Most of its European offerings are currently at 100 to 120 g/km, depending on the model and engine configuration.
Although VW is not opposed to tough targets, said Winterkorn, regulators and industry must work together to ensure that the transition to greener vehicles happens in a way that remains profitable for the automakers. “Companies can only invest in environmental technologies if they can afford it,” he told the crowd.
VW clearly is getting squeezed to the squealing point between governments intent on cutting greenhouse-gas production and wary consumers, who just want affordable cars. Of the nine brands and their new products highlighted during VW Group Night in Paris, six vehicles were hybrids of some sort. That’s a demonstration, Winterkorn said, of VW’s commitment to getting with the greenhouse-gas reduction program.
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Winterkorn added that VW was working to reduce the environmental impact of all of its 100-plus assembly sites worldwide, while also improving fuel economy in internal-combustion powertrains as well as adding hybrid and electric vehicles. At the same time, VW, which is on track to sell more than 10 million vehicles worldwide this year, is “working to safeguard the economic basis for all of these tasks,” he said. Translation: We need to make Golfs and Passats and Polos that people will actually buy, so that we can afford to spend money on future green tech.
Clearly, Winterkorn isn’t expecting affordability to lure customers to the plug-in-hybrid Passat GTE unveiled in Paris. Or the Porsche Cayenne S E-Hybrid. Or the proposed Lamborghini Asterion concept. Or the VW XL Sport, a hybrid supercar based on its XL1 green car shown last year and which uses a Ducati V-twin engine. VW says it will build 500 copies of the XL Sport, which could get more than 70 mpg. But 500 of anything won’t move the needle on the company’s fleet C02 average.
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via Agya
