If EU legislators get their way, by 2012 average CO2 tailpipe emissions will have to be reduced to 130 grammes per driven kilometre. Cars that fail to meet the standard will be ‘fined’; or in other words, car buyers will have to pay yet another stealth tax if they want to guzzle gas.
Toyota will be one of the few mainstream manufacturers that might just scrape under the bar. The Aygo, and, of course the Prius, are pretty frugal in matters of CO2, and are regarded, even by rivals, as halo products. Personally. I’d rather push a Land Rover than drive an Aygo but I will admit that Toyota’s city car makes a lot of sense in the present climate (political and otherwise).
Yet Toyota is not as squeaky-green as you might imagine. In America (where else?) it has decided to nudge GM’s rear fender with a massive truck – or pick-up, as we call them. Poised to overtake GM as the world’s largest car maker, Toyota has upped the ante by re-launching into GM’s back yard the Tundra, which it has stuffed with a 5.7-litre V8 developing 381 horsepower and returning an urban fuel consumption of just 14 mpg.
But according to the official Tundra website, ‘…Toyota encourages responsible operation to protect…the environment.’ So that’s all right then.
