Gas-guzzler sales may be at risk from China rules

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L18600844.htm

HELSINKI, March 18 (Reuters) - Most American cars and half of European models do not meet new fuel consumption standards that China will introduce at mid-year, a European Commission official said on Friday.

But car industry officials played down any concerns that their sales in a crucial market might be at risk. "China plans to introduce next summer tough environmental norms. Eighty percent of U.S.-made cars would not fulfil these and 50 percent of European cars," Timo Makela, director of sustainable development and integration at the European Commission, told a seminar in Helsinki.

"For some reason, most of French cars would fulfil the demands," he said, adding his information came from industry sources.

Volkswagen <VOWG.DE>, Europe's biggest carmaker and market leader in China, said it was relaxed about the new norms for cars and light commercials vehicles to be launched in July and toughened in 2008.

more

[htuttle]

1. Well, that puts Detroit in an interesting position

They will have to choose between losing the largest emerging consumer market on the planet, or screwing their partners in the oil industry.

Any bets on which path they will choose? (I'm betting they go screaming for Bush to 'fix' the market in China for them before they do anything else).

[UpInArms]

2. I guess that means that

GM won't be able to shove their guzzlers onto China's population.

[cliss]

12. China has a huge problem with pollution.

China has a population of 1.5 billion people. I read an article this week about the problems the Chinese are facing today.

China's #1 problem is pollution. Their cities have a ghastly brown haze which is compromising their citizens' health. They are using much more inputs to make their products. I think they are the highest in the world, and it's an embarrassment (meaning, they are quite inefficient in utilizing inputs - probably using outdated machinery, labor-intensive products, etc).

Why in the hell would they want SUV's to further compound the problem?

[LeftHander]

3. How dare those commies...

If 12 MPG and 450 HP is good enough for Amerikuhns then the rest of the world better git with us or they be agin us...

[Tesha]

4. No sensible country would alow gas-guzzlers

Given what we know about the ecological damage from oil production
and consumption, and the economic damage caused by dependence on
foreign oil, no sensible country would allow (let alone encourage!)
the use of gas-guzzlers when there are perfectly fine efficient
vehicles that could be used instead.

Tesha

[Say_What]

5. That's what car industry officials said in the early 1960s right before

the huge influx of foreign imports into the USSA.

I'm so glad I own a car that gets 37mpg :-) Last year I sold a motorhome that wanted $50 worth of gas everytime I looked at it.

What are these SUV-driving a$$holes gonna do with their vehicles? LOL

[Norquist Nemesis]

6. Look forward to Detroit's low car prices

for the US market...especially, if that's about all they've got left.

[Say_What]

7. Who would wanna buy those POS?

Even if they're fuel efficient, they're still inferior to imports in all ways :-)

[Norquist Nemesis]

8. I'm just saying they'll dump them here.

I'm not making comparisons on quality.

[zelda7743]

18. And they're ugly, too

Just adding my two cents. :)

[jmcgowanjm]

37. But their debt is priced to high car prices

So capital must be destroyed.

Bankruptcy, then deflation

[slor]

9. Smart people...

of course there will be fools, even here, that denounce this, but the time for moderation is past. We need to impose conservation NOW!

[TheFarseer]

11. I completely agree Free market be damned n/t

[CountAllVotes]

19. damn right you are

One car to one family ... PERIOD.

And that car must get 30 MPG on the freeway, no exceptions.

Then, WE won't be is this digusting damn mess!

And we see this crap and laugh!



This is the problem ...

:kick:

[TheFarseer]

10. Authoritarians don't do everything wrong

Case in point, this decision is superior to any action we've taken about the oil crisis. Of course if we had a real democracy instead of corporatocracy, maybe things would be different. Anyone else notice how China is making all the right moves to compete in tomorrow's economy and we're making all the dumb moves?

[tom_paine]

14. Sure. Their Tyrants are smarter than ours.

The only things OURS are good at are lying, stealing, fraud, and Goebbelsian Propaganda/advertising/marketing/PR.

If the future of the world depending on being the best at THOSE things, Imperial Amerika could expect to have The Thousand-Year Reich.

[TheFarseer]

15. If they could apply that globally we might have something

if we could lie to, cheat, and steal from other countries and make them like us, we would really have something, but on the global level it's completely reverse. They can only cheat and steal from people in their own country.

[MadisonProgressive]

13. I'm about ready to get a new car, and I wanted to get a Prius

but there was a YEAR WAIT to get one! So now that everything seems so precarious, I'm sticking with my 22MPH beater and paying down all my bills at a ferocious rate.

Maybe I'll just get a motorcycle. :shrug:

[Say_What]

16. Honda Accord just came out with a hybrid, supposed to get

great mpg. Don't know if they have a wait list or not. I get 37 with my Civic and it's not a hybrid... :-)

[sellitman]

34. Look at the

Volkswagen Jetta TDI and the Civic Hybrid. They both get around 50 MPH.

[Massacure]

17. Cheap labor + well built cars = good game Detroit.

[Gloria]

20. Gas-guzzler sales may be at risk from China rules

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L18600844.htm


Gas-guzzler sales may be at risk from China rules
18 Mar 2005 15:47:35 GMT
Source: Reuters
HELSINKI, March 18 (Reuters) - Most American cars and half of European models do not meet new fuel consumption standards that China will introduce at mid-year, a European Commission official said on Friday.

But car industry officials played down any concerns that their sales in a crucial market might be at risk. "China plans to introduce next summer tough environmental norms. Eighty percent of U.S.-made cars would not fulfil these and 50 percent of European cars," Timo Makela, director of sustainable development and integration at the European Commission, told a seminar in Helsinki.

"For some reason, most of French cars would fulfil the demands," he said, adding his information came from industry sources.

snip

China unveiled the standards last October as part of its strategy to conserve energy and protect the environment.

MORE

[joefree1]

21. Gotta say I get a real hoot every time I see a Hummer

... with a for sale sign in it's window. Suckers.

I always giving them a pinkie salute.

[physioex]

26. LOL....

Imagine $3/gal and a thirty gallon tank...And it may even go higher.

[joefree1]

28. Let's see, at ten miles to the Gallon

... a three hundred mile trip would cost ... what, $90.00? And many of the idiots who drive Hummers emptied their bank accounts to buy the damn things.


Seating now available in the Smoking Section:
Politics, humor, death and the Devil - http://www.eDiablo.com

[dutchdemocrat]

29. In Holland

In Holland gas is €1.25 per liter which is €5.00 per US gallon... or translated into Yank figures US$6.66 per gallon.


US$200 to fill up a gas guzzling Hummer in this country.


Trains and bikes... Holland and China are both densely packed countries.

[barbaraann]

22. Ah, French cars....

[pokercat999]

30. Very stylish including

the stylish parking ticket? under the wiper.

I am ashamed to admit I once owned and drove a Simca,(wonderful French driving machine) 4 door rear engine model. It was 1972, I don't know the model year of the car, it was mid-sixties model I guess. My only excuse is I was in the US Army and could not afford a real car.

Unlike the Hugo that hit American shores later the Simca didn't even have a rear window heater to keep your hands warm while you pushed it in the winter. Coming home from a bar one night I drove the Simca up a ramp of a low boy truck that was parked on the street. The low boy had the rear ramps down waiting to load a piece of heavy equipment. The Simca took the left side ramp dead center and slid to a stop with the wheels hanging over each side. The truck driver was kind enough to help me push it off the ramp and wished me luck as I drove the few remaining blocks to my apartment. The only damage was a slightly crushed trunk/boot floor. I guess I was immortal when I was 20, like most kids.

[charlie]

31. Ashamed?

Pfft. Forget that, revel in your independence from fashion, your imperviousness to the opinions of your peers :)

My Dad bought a used Renault Dauphine in the mid-sixties as a second car. In Japan, of all places, back when Datsun and Toyota had reputations for turning out tin-stamped cheapjack rollerskates. I loved that car, much preferred it to the family stationwagon, a Mercury Comet. You didn't mindlessly glide to your destination, but were very aware of motion, the lay of the road. Each ride was a fresh experience, not some tedium to be endured between A and B. And the orange-lighted flags it deployed when hitting the turn signal were supremely cool.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

23. Like we're gonna sell anything to China...

...except debt.

[illflem]

32. GM is building the largest auto plant in the world

to sell cars to the Chinese.

[applegrove]

24. Man - those neocons can talk a good talk but look at the Chinese..

they don't buy it that externalities are nothing for industry or corporations to be bothered with.

The US are such Big Men... going & attack the small weak countries rather than what they are really afraid of. They are worried about the Chinese smarting up the regulations. Dam - there had to be a reason why those people have had one empire or another for 3000 years. I heard there was 100 feet of soil everywhere.. that explains why they have all not starved to death I guess.

Yup - the battle in the world is over "externalities" and what should be considered "norms".

May we all make it through..well except for the ones who are already dead.. and all the people in Africa who will die of AIDs because they have to pay 'market price' for aids cocktails. Hmmmm a few million there at least. Why couldn't the Africans be considered externalities? If anyone deserves to be left the fuck alone it is them.

[CountAllVotes]

25. China

A very wise, very old, very frugal country. It has had no choice and its peoples are much the same IMO.

More power to them! I betcha they'll come up with a fuel efficient car and then it's bye bye for good GM with all of your ugly Humvees, Blazers, Suburbans, etc.

Ugh.

There may be a whole lot of good to be coming very soon from this I hope!

:kick:

[oblivious]

27. I notice China is starting to sell an SUV in Europe.

I was on British Sky news last night. Looks nice. Italian design. Half the price of American SUVs.

First Chinese auto imports set to make European debut
Dutch rally driver and car dealer Peter Bijvelds expects to sell about 2,000 of the first Chinese cars in Europe this year at almost half the price of their nearest competitor, he said yesterday.

...Mr. Bijvelds, whose dealership is based in the village of Erp, in the Netherlands, has made minor alterations to the SUV in order to meet Europe's strict emissions standards.

He said he has already sold about 300 Landwind SUVs in the Netherlands and is in talks to set up a distribution network in Belgium before expanding across the continent.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050318/RTICKERLAND18/TPBusiness/International

pic here
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=104882

[dbt]

33. Here goes the game, bu$hler.

In announcing the new fuel consumption standards, China has just called the bluff of the government and the US auto industry. Reckon it's time to raise or fold.

[durablend]

35. So when does * declare war on China?

Cuz this DEFINITELY sounds like an attack on Amerikkka (how DARE they tell us to "adjust or die")

[Name removed]

36. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[geek tragedy]

38. Do you agree with TBRnews and its opinions on Jews and the Holocaust? eom