(Source: Green Car Congress & R744.com)

 South Korea plans to raise the fuel economy of locally-made vehicles to surpass future requirements being by the US and Japan, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE). Korea’s fuel efficiency standards are already slated to increase 16.5% in 2012 from the current levels. 

New passenger cars sold within the country in 2008 ran an average of 11.47 kilometers per liter of fuel (27 mpg US, 8.7 L/100km)—up from 11.04 km/L (26 mpg US, 9.1 L/100km) recorded in 2007.

South Korea enacted fuel economy standards in 2006 for domestic cars and in 2009 for imported cars with sales of less than 10,000 vehicles. Companies manufacturing or importing more than 10,000 vehicles per year are subject to US CAFE standards.  Standards as strict as those of advanced countries are likely to be in place by 2015 and 2020, MKE said.More importantly, a shift in purchasing habits to favor greener and more fuel-efficient vehicles will put Korea on the right path to the realization of its national vision—low carbon, green growth.

At present, Korean standards are at 12.4 km/l (29 mpg U.S.) for vehicles with engine displacements of 1.5 litres or less, and 9.6 km/l (22.6 mpg) for those above 1.5 litres. However, as a report from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) found last year, South Korea is the only nation in the world where fleet average fuel economy is projected to decline over the next five years due to a sharp increase of large engine sized cars. A 15% increase would thus raise the standards to about 14.3 l/km (33.6 mpg) and 11 km/l (25.9 mpg) respectively by 2012. By comparison, the U.S. fuel economy standards have been raised to 35 mpg by 2020. 

South Korea first developing country to set GHG emission targets under Kyoto
South Korea could become the first nation not obliged by the Kyoto Protocol to set a national GHG emissions target. The country will thus freeze its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at 2005 levels, or 591 million tons of carbon dioxide, over the next five years, Environment Minister Lee Maan-Ee announced on 21 March. Korea’s first governmental scheme to tackle global warming will encourage the development of environmentally friendly vehicles, and initiate nationwide energy-saving campaigns in non-manufacturing sectors including households and commercial buildings. The freeze of GHG emissions until 2012 will actually be a small reduction as South Korea’s emissions have increased by an average of 2.2 percent annually in recent years.

The unprecedented move follows the United Nations climate change conference in Bali last December, where South Korea pledged to take concrete steps to curb emissions along with 130 other countries. Currently, South Korea is classified as a developing country not facing any emission targets under the Kyoto Protocol. However, as it is likely to be given the status of a developed country in a post-Kyoto agreement after 2012, the latest plan is seen by many as a preparation for even tougher targets in the future.

(Source: Autoweek)

Bob Lutz, General Motors’ soon-to-retire product czar, said Thursday that not only does he support and endorse the work of President Barack Obama’s automotive task force, but he’d also like to see the government-industry entity become a permanent fixture.

 “Benevolent oversight and two-way communication between Washington and the auto industry” would be a good thing, Lutz told members of the Automotive Press Association at a luncheon Thursday in Detroit.

“Jeez, it only took 30 years for somebody to finally figure it out,” he said.

Lutz cited–and praised–the new federal fuel-economy regulations as an example of what industry and government can do when they work together. Though the new CAFE requirements mandate 35.5 mpg by 2016, Lutz said many parts of the new rules reflect industry positions on the particulars of the law.

The positions voiced by Lutz seem at odds with the suggestion that the GM product vice chairman is leaving GM at year’s end in part because he doesn’t want to deal with life at “Government Motors,” which GM has been called since taking government loans and accepting task-force oversight.

On the contrary, Lutz said, he began to warm to the task-force members when they visited Detroit and seemed more interested in the 560-hp Cadillac CTS coupe than in GM’s more economical offerings.

“That was sort of the moment that I began to take heart,” Lutz said.

(FYI -You can also listen to an audio commentary by folks @ Autoweek on Mr. Lutz words about GM’s future.)

(Source: Bloomberg)

Cars and light trucks will be required to meet a U.S.fuel-economy average of 27.3 miles per gallon for 2011 models, a 2 mpg increase from the previous year’s level, the Transportation Department said.

The 8 percent gain announced today in Washington carries out a 2007 law intended to curb emissions and fuel use. The change, being put in place asGeneral Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC face possible bankruptcy, isn’t as aggressive as the 27.8 mpg target that President George W. Bush proposed in April 2008.

“This isn’t going to be a stretch for them to meet this,” David Kelly, former acting head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration under Bush, said of automakers. New-car fuel economy already averaged 31.3 mpg by 2007, NHTSA said in today’s rule.

Cars must average 30.2 mpg, up from 27.5 currently, under the rule. Light trucks will average 24.1, up from 23.5 mpg for 2010 models. The December 2007 law called for vehicles to meet a 35 mpg standard by 2020 models, a 40 percent increase from the average in 2008.

“The bad news is that the 27.3 mpg standard means that they’ll have to make up for it in future years,” said Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign, a group in Washington that works for environmentally “clean” cars. “The goods news is that they have promised that they will.”

President Barack Obama’s administration had a March 31 deadline for setting the standard, giving the industry about 18 months to prepare its 2011 models to meet the requirement. Bush never issued his proposed standard before he left office.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: ClimateWire via NYTimes)