cars

Now that VW, Europe's biggest and most powerful car company, has agreed to make cleaner and more efficient cars, it's time to convince the rest of Europe (and the world) to follow suit.

After nearly two years of campaigning by more than 526,000 of you across the planet, VW has turned away from the Dark Side and committed to make cleaner and more efficient cars.

That means VW will also meet strong EU CO2 reduction targets.

This is big, because using less oil means less pollution, less impact on the climate and less pressure on vulnerable places like the Arctic.

After nearly 2 years and 520,683 people pressuring VW, they've finally agreed to make cleaner and more efficient cars. VW announced that it will meet new EU car efficiency targets for 2020. That means its entire fleet will average 95g/km (about 4 litres/100km) per vehicle by 2020. VW is Europe’s biggest car-maker, the seconde biggest in the world, so this is big news. Using less oil means less pollution, less impact on the climate and less pressure on vulnerable places like the Arctic. Here's how you made it happen...

How’s your New Year’s resolutions list going? We’re waiting to hear how Volkswagen has begun 2013.

This morning more than 25 Greenpeace activists protested against the carmaker’s stance on the climate outside the Vienna car show. Handing out leaflets and making the point that VW can do better, we were hoping that the company makes some strong commitments.

"Environmental protection is the top priority for Volkswagen". So says the blurb for VW’s latest PR initiative. But according to a story in yesterday’s Guardian newspaper it seems no one told their lobbyists…

The story reveals that the VDA, the lobby group that represents VW along with fellow German carmakers BMW and Daimler, wants to make a big hole in a proposed EU law to control CO2 emissions from even bigger cars.

Sometimes it seems like industry directly dictates the laws that politicians draw up. And it’s just been revealed that our old friends Volkswagen are leading the way against green EU legislation.

VW claim they are committed to becomming the "most eco-friendly automaker in the world". But if their new Golf 7 is anything to go by they aren't living up to their claims. Our report published before the launch of the Golf 7 shows how a greener, more efficient Golf is possible.

Don’t you just hate it when someone has the power to make a real difference, but won’t use it? Take Volkswagen for instance. It’s Europe’s biggest car maker, eager to display itself as a friend of the environment and known worldwide for its high standards of engineering.

Yet for years VW has failed to put its money where its mouth is and commercially produce cars that are both cheap to run and emit far less CO2 than the rest of the market.