European Automakers Blame Roads For Emissions Woes
Image: European Roads
It’s no secret that the European Union is cracking down pretty hard on CO2 emissions to help reduce global warming. There are benchmarks set in 2021 and 2030 for automakers in the region to meet certain emissions goals to help make European roads a bit cleaner. According to AutoExpress, there are serious concerns from the European Automotive Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) about their ability to meet the deadlines.
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Instead of collaborating on green energy solutions or pouring money into research to create new models that meet standards, the ACEA is convinced that they will need government assistance to meet the EU’s demands. More specifically, they need all of the 28 member nations of the EU to resurface their roads. This doesn’t apply to just highways, but to bridges, city streets, country roads, and all of the types of roadways in between.
The automakers’ reasoning is that resurfacing roads will make them low resistant, which means a car would need to use less energy to travel on them. Where would the EU get the billions of euros needed for such a project? From taxpayers, of course. AutoExpress estimates that in the UK, where the street maintenance schedule is behind by about 13 years, 12 billion GBP would be needed just to catch up their road repairs before embarking on resurfacing everything.
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When I’m running late, I always seem to blame as many external forces as possible. The weather, traffic, incompetent drivers are all targets of my ire. In my mind, though, I know that it’s all my fault that I didn’t make it to my destination in a timely fashion. I’m wondering when the ACEA will wake up and realize that their strategy, not the road, is the real problem. They still have five years before their first deadline, and then 14 more years before the stricter deadline. Maybe instead of trying to convince the EU to commit to expensive projects, they should invest all that effort into engineering better cars.
News Source: AutoExpress
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