Currently reading: Car industry faces £10bn cost to take next economy steps
Experts warn the cost of producing greener cars could prove to be too great for some manufacturers

The extra costs of building more fuel-efficient cars could prove ruinous to some European manufacturers, experts have warned. 

According to a study by ISI Automotive, the automotive industry as a whole will have to spend “around £10bn between now and 2022” in order to comply with the EU’s fleet average C02 target figure of 95g/km.

ISI said most of what in engineering terms is “low-hanging fruit”, such as downsized engines and a greater focus on low rolling resistance and aerodynamic efficiency, has already been exploited, but making the next step in fuel efficiency will be much more expensive.

“Having studied reports from the European Environment Agency, the International Council on Clean Transport and the European Commission, we think that these [new generation] cars will require an extra £842 in [engineering] content,” said ISI’s report.

Although this amount might not seem huge, it is a significant percentage of the factory cost of building a car. The average mass-market manufacturer only makes a profit margin of between £250 and £320 per car. 

According to a report by the International Council on Clean Transportation quoted by ISI, if the EU targets a new C02 fleet average of 80g/km for 2025, the cost of the extra engineering content could rise to £1100 more than that of today’s typical Volkswagen Golf-sized diesel cars.

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dgate 4 November 2014

@Norma Smellons

(That is arrant nonsense; the cost of oil has collapsed recently through over-supply.)
If you reread Oilburners comment he was pointing out the amount of electric energy used to make a gallon of oil, not cost or pump price!
I can see you are pro oil, enjoy it while it lasts for the oil based economy will end this century regardless.
graleman 9 November 2014

Hidden facts

Its a fact that your refined oil used to make fuels, is up to 3 years old, so the price factors is rubbish.
The pollution rate for cars is 0.0006%. Far less then cows produce!!
Now, to make engines more efficient, follow the aero engine route, and use a pre heat chamber.
Heat the fuel which can be somewhere between 20:1 and 50:1 to pre ignite, mix it with air in the combustion chamber, ignite it with a big spark, and you have a big bang, Hey presto, engines cleaner, and upto 2-3 times better on miles per gallon, and much cleaner.
Fiat, Lotus and BMW have produced prototype engines with no camshaft, enabling a cylinder to be closed at anytime. Fiat went a bit further, with controlled timing/valve lift, using magnetic hydraulic lifters.
This will be the future. The big issue at the moment, is the oil industry. They have a big squeeze on the world's Governments. So this next step, will cost the oil industry Millions in lost revenue.
Andy.
Norma Smellons 4 November 2014

@Oilburner

That is arrant nonsense; the cost of oil has collapsed recently through over-supply. The last time we had a glut, in the 1990's, it stayed low for well over a decade. Furthermore, the shale business in the US is nothing short of a revolution. It is already reshaping the global energy market in ways which were unimaginable only a decade ago. Meanwhile, back on Planet Green, the elusive "advances" in EVs never materialise, not even incrementally. And now there is no real incentive for the market to drive this; EVs will always remain the playthings of monied hippies. They have no place in the real world.
Oilburner 3 November 2014

Not impossible

Just go electric. All that electricity used to refine oil can then be used to power cars instead. Each liter of refined oil product takes around 1 Kwh of energy. A 40L tank of diesel that takes you say 400 miles (45.5 mpg) also required 40 Kwh of electricity just to make that diesel from crude oil. A Nissan Leaf will do around 160 - 200 miles on that much electricity. So you're about 50% there just by saving on the energy used for refining oil. And that's on the low estimates for oil refining costs. And oil is getting more and more energy expensive to get out of the ground. Just think how much more energy fracking takes compared to pumping oil out of the North Sea.

I think we can all agree that Tesla's cars are too expensive and cheaper electric cars don't have the range we all want. But that is today. The technology of electric cars is advancing all the time.

Give it 5-10 years and I don't doubt the typical electric car will do 300 miles between charges and be able to reach 80% charge in 20 mins of fast charging.

Bring it on.