pIf there is one thing to be more wary of than an advertisement for a new product, it is an ad that isn#039;t selling you any product at all ndash; just image, pure and simple. So, in the middle of a recession when car sales are low, Audi last week bought the back pages of the Guardian and Sunday Times, and no doubt others, to tell us about what its largest typeface called a very, very quick glimpse of the future./ppThis week, Audi used the Detroit Auto Show to show us that glimpse: its e-tron concept car, an electric car with electrifying performance that was originally unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show last year. Concept cars are mock up models that never reach the showrooms in their present form./ppIt#039;s nice to see electric cars being promoted as fit for more than just getting around town ndash; albeit only at motor shows and on the back pages of newspapers. But we are entitled to be cynical. This corporate image advertising has a deservedly bad reputation for greenwash./ppIn the world of oil companies, for instance, there seems to be an inverse relationship between the amount of money spent promoting corporate green aspirations and actual investment in delivering clean energy. Witnesses the millions spent by Shell./ppSo what is Audi doing out in the real world? The answer is not nearly enough. It is so far behind the green curve that the company told me this week it won#039;t have its first hybrid on the market for almost another year, and no electric vehicles before the end of 2012./ppTrue, last month, its A3 2.0 picked up the green car of the year 2010 award, sponsored by America#039;s Green Car Journal, at the Los Angeles Auto Show. But how come the award was made even before 2010 was under way? It seems that date inflation by the award organisers was keeping pace with inflated environmental claims by Audi./ppThe diesel-powered A3 2.0, has CO2 emissions of 115-147 grams per kilometre. This is better than average, but with a range of cars now under 100g, it hardly meets the citation from the journal#039;s editor that the car defines what a green car should be./ppThe Audi website also has a page on green issues and sustainability (pdf). In keeping with the company#039;s famous slogan, Vorsprung durch Technik (advancement through technology), it focuses on how the company is improving engine technology so you save fuel without noticing any change in performance./ppThis is good. But before you start believing the hype, read the latest report from Transport amp; Environment (pdf), an independent European think tank. It uses official data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act to chart progress by major car manufacturers to reduce CO2 emissions from their cars in Europe. And guess where Audi and its owner Volkswagen, which together sell more cars in Europe than any other company, appear?/ppThey are third from bottom in a table of 14, with fleet-average emissions for cars sold in 2008 at 159g/km. This is way off the voluntary target of 140g/km agreed between the EU and European car manufacturers more than a decade ago to be achieved by 2008. Audi tells me its average in 2008 was a very poor 175g, though the early months of 2009 were close to the lower Volkswagen figure, which would be better than all but one of our key competitors./ppTo be fair, most other manufacturers also missed the target. The EU average for cars sold in 2008 was 152g. Only Fiat and Peugeot-Citroen have got below 140g./ppThey all have a long way to go to meet the EU#039;s new target of 130g across average fleets by 2015. And Audi and its owners at Volkswagen more than most. The Transport amp; Environment report notes caustically that the Volkswagen group hellip; have a strategy of selling fuel efficiency as an option, rather than as standard. Audi denies this and says it works to improve fuel efficiency as part of the normal development process./ppBut even so, take a close look at that ad. It is, as they say, a very, very quick glimpse of the future. Now you see it; now you don#039;t./p
pCar makers are making the process of searching for a fuel-efficient car like looking for a needle in a haystack by burying CO2 figures for their models online, experts and campaigners claimed today./ppA report from the government#039;s Energy Saving Trust, Friends of the Earth Europe and We are Futureproof, said car companies are failing consumers with confusing websites./ppThe online survey involving members of the public found that only half (52% of attempts by consumers to find CO2 figures for specific UK cars were successful. Less than 5% of the 363 people who took part came across the widely recognised A-G energy efficiency label while attempting to look up emissions data./ppMini, Kia, Lexus and Honda were lauded for the ease of use and accessibility of finding CO2 data on their sites, while the worst – ranked by user experience criteria – were Alfa Romeo, Nissan, Smart, and Mercedes-Benz./ppThe consultancy Ecolane, which carried out the survey, rated the websites on five design principles including site navigation; providing CO2 data alongside core data such as performance; how clearly individual models and different trims are described; whether comparative emissions information was provided (such as the A-G label); and whether the sites relied on large downloads of PDF files. The report also evaluated how long it took survey respondents to find the data./p span class=inline wide
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pThe average time taken to find CO2 figures for cars ranged from 74 seconds for Lexus to nearly eight minutes for Alfa Romeo, whose site came bottom of the overall usability table. Other sites coming in for criticism included the low ranking Smart site – very slow and difficult to find correct model. CO2 not given high importance compared to other car features such as equipment and style and the Seat site which received the ultimate condemnation about as easy as dealing with the civil service. At the opposite end of the spectrum was Peugeot. One tester said: Very easy to find the emissions data, all sites should be like this./ppCar makers must display a car#039;s fuel consumption and CO2 data in their showrooms but are not legally required to do so on their sites. Marian Spain, the director of strategy at the Energy Saving Trust, said: Nowadays most people do initial online research when looking into buying a new car. Our research shows that in many cases, finding out the running costs of cars and their impact on the environment from the car manufacturer website is like looking for a needle in a haystack./ppBlake Ludwig, managing director for the We Are Futureproof group, said: More and more people want to choose greener, more efficient cars, but our study shows that some car makers expect them to spend time hunting around confusing websites for information. Other car markers have got it right, putting the data upfront and easy to find, and we think all companies should have to follow this model./ppA spokesperson for the Society of Motor Industry Manufacturers and Traders said: Vehicle manufacturers are highly aware of the important role driver information can play in reducing road transport emissions and the significant influence this data has on a person#039;s purchasing decision./ppA Department for Transport spokesperson said the government recognised that people wanted clear information on the environmental credentials of new cars and pointed to the requirements to show figures for new cars in showrooms and government#039;s voluntary scheme for used cars. But they said the government was not looking to mandate car makers to improve CO2 data on their own websites./ppConsumers can also find CO2 figures elsewhere online, such as on the government#039;s Act On CO2 site and the VCA website./p