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Ban gas-guzzling cars, says
ex-Shell boss
Eric Schmitt and Michael R. Gordon
IHT
Monday February 4, 2008
New 'gas guzzling’ cars should be banned across the European
Union, the former head of Shell has said.
Sir Mark Moody-Stuart said the sale of new cars which do less
than 35 miles per gallon (mpg) should be outlawed for environmental
reasons.
The former oil giant boss said taking such cars off the road
was an ethical issue and a responsibility of society at large.
Such a move, which would be heavily resisted by the motor industry,
would risk virtually eliminating the sports and luxury car markets.
(Article continues below)
Top British brands such as Jaguar, Rolls Royce and Aston Martin
would have to radically re-engineer their vehicles and their business
models if they were to survive.
But Sir Mark, 67, who was chairman of Royal Dutch Shell between
1998 and 2001, and retired from the board in 2005, said a total
ban on inefficient cars was necessary.
He said: “We need very tough regulation saying that you
can’t drive or build something less than a certain standard.
You would be allowed to drive an Aston Martin - but only if it
did 50-60mpg.”
In his opinion, he commented, cars which failed to use fuel sparingly
“simply should not be allowed.”
Cars which would be banned include the 13.7mpg Bentley Arnage,
14.8mpg Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren and 24.8mpg Jaguar XJ 4.2l V8.
Sir Mark thought the most widely used method of getting people
out of large cars - by taxing their use more - was not acceptable.
"When we eliminated coal fires in London we didn’t
say to people in Chelsea you can pay a bit more and toast your
crumpets in front of an open fire - we said nobody, but nobody,
could have an open fire," he said.
Full
article here.
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