The sixty second Frankfurt Motor Show has been officially opened by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The fair is the biggest of its kind in the world with almost eleven hundred car makers and accessories and components manufacturers from forty countries featuring their latest products. The German Chancellor reminded car makers of the necessity to reduce pollution: "The aims we agree upon in Europe have to be fair, when it comes to the point that we want to reach an average of 120 grams of CO Two per kilometre by 2012 the German automobile industry will have my support to fairly distribute it among the different car size segments."
German carmakers fear their larger, heavier vehicles could be seriously disadvantaged by strict clean air rules. Alongside flashy new sports cars are the latest environmentally friendly technologies like diesel hybrids and electric cars.
Despite some efforts by car makers to reduce fuel consumption and to research green technologies, environmentalists remain critical of the industry which they claim still tends toward bigger and more powerful cars. They assert that real improvement is rare.
http://www.euronews.net |
