Swiss car dealers slap on sticky labels

Cars in Switzerland will soon be sporting labels on how fuel efficient the vehicle is. From 2003, Swiss car dealers be slapping on the colour-coded A to G labels commonly seen on electrical appliances. The Swiss government hopes the new scheme will cut fuel consumption by 3% a year.


Under the SwissEnergy programme, from 1 January 2003 all new cars will have to be labelled according to their fuel consumption. Gasoline-greedy vehicles will be graded a G, while the lowest fuel guzzlers will be awarded an A. Price lists and publicity material will have to mention the car’s category.

The move is designed to reduce average car consumption from its present 8.4 litres per 100 km to 6.4 litres by 2008. An Austrian study has estimated that the scheme will cut fuel consumption by 4-5% overall.

In a separate attempt to streamline transport, Switzerland is asking its population to leave their car at home for a day. On 22 September 70 communes will take part in a day ‘In town without my car.’

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