June 24, 2009
by dlevi
in Environment/Climate Change, Mercedes News, News
No Comments

Gov’t’s scrappage scheme is definitely shifting new cars - but will it do much else?

News came last week that the government’s scrappage scheme had thus far succeeded in shifting over 50,000 new vehicles in the UK. No doubt in times of downturn this is proving to be great news for car companies which would otherwise be posting far worse figures for recent months were it not for such a scheme.

Car dealerships also are enjoying a fresh boost in business where they might easily instead have been facing closure in many cases. It seems clear therefore that the auto sector is benefitting massively from the £300m scheme. But what of the much touted environmental benefits?

The first (and rather obvious) thing to mention is that we have not actually reduced the number of cars on UK roads through all this. The scheme offers only a 1 for 1 (old for new) option. So the only environmental benefits that we could hope to see will be coming from the increased level of fuel efficiency offered by the new replacements, as opposed to the very fuel-hungry old bangers that we drove before.

However all of these new cars cost a great deal (environmentally speaking) to produce. Moreover not all people taking up the gov’t’s offer are going for small and efficient replacements - the scheme extends also to bigger cars, so we are seeing many people who would otherwise not upgrade (in terms of engine size) now finding themselves financially empowered to do so - and taking up the option. Of course, many more are downsizing (petrol is again above the £1/l mark) - but we should not kid ourselves that it does not go both ways.

Ultimately the scheme is all well and good from an industry sector perspective. However the environmental benefits should not be used as an overstated excuse, when in reality £300m could have been far better spent if we really wanted to reduce CO2 emissions first and foremost.

Why, oh why, for example was there no option to simply trade in our old bangers in return for some kind of 15-year free public transport pass or something similar? I don’t doubt such a thing could have been arranged - and i for one would for sure have taken up that offer without any hesitation. Then we might really have been able to talk about environmental benefits - as it is we are instead touting the most miniscule (and not to mention cost-ineffective) reduction in CO2 emissions as some fantastic global-warming averting life-saver. This is most certainly isn’t…

Dejan Levi

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