What this meant was that your old Peugeot 205, which consume next to nothing as it is really light was forbidden, but a big Mercedes suv measured in liters/km was allowed without issues.
It’s really unintuitive, but small older cars are consuming more gasoline than newer, bigger cars. My old Opel Corsa D uses more liters per kilometer than my parents big SUV and has worse emissions. There have been real improvements in fuel economy and exhaust cleaning in the last 30-40 years. The issue with those big SUVs is that they could be even more efficient if there were smaller and lighter. A modern engine in a small car like the Peugeot 205 would really be something.
It’s really unintuitive, but small older cars are consuming more gasoline than newer, bigger cars. My old Opel Corsa D uses more liters per kilometer than my parents big SUV and has worse emissions. There have been real improvements in fuel economy and exhaust cleaning in the last 30-40 years. The issue with those big SUVs is that they could be even more efficient if there were smaller and lighter. A modern engine in a small car like the Peugeot 205 would really be something.