European customers don't want to buy the environmentally friendly cars that would help the auto industry reach a target to lower carbon dioxide emissions, European carmakers said Monday.
The European Commission warned last week that it may need to bring in new rules to force carmakers to cut carbon dioxide because they are unlikely to meet their own voluntary target to achieve average emissions for new European cars of 140 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer by 2008.
In 2004, new cars in the region had an average of 161 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer and they would need to introduce cuts of more than 3 percent a year immediately to meet the goal of reducing car fumes by a quarter below 1995 levels, the commission said in August.
But the European automobile manufacturers' association ACEA said customer trends were to blame despite their strenuous efforts to decrease emissions.
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