Luxury automakers cannot afford to use emissions-cutting technology because their powerful cars would become impossibly expensive, an industry expert warned Wednesday. The European Union’s executive arm, the Commission, put itself on a collision course with the German automobile industry on Wednesday by approving strict limits on average carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions of cars.

Willi Diez, head of the Automobile Industry Institute in Geislingen, near Stuttgart, Germany, said the EU plans for penalties for excessive emissions were a “serious defeat for the German makers of premium cars.”

In an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, he forecast that the makers of high-end cars would try to finance the new regime by upping the prices of their cars.

“Given the tough competition, I’d be doubtful if that will succeed,” he said.

The big-name German companies would also attempt to cut production costs to compensate, which would mean a loss of jobs in Germany. Daimler and BMW would partly relocate to key export markets in Asia and the United States. http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/161588.html