Germany launches a practical tool to compare electric cars and we want the same in France

Germany has just passed a new law requiring manufacturers to communicate more explicitly on the environmental impact of their electric or non-electric cars. With more details on consumption, pollutant releases, and total costs, consumers will be better informed. Here are the details.

What environmental impact for which car? The question is thorny, but the regulations try to answer it as best they can. In Europe, for example, the WLTP approval cycle has replaced the old NEDC cycle, with a desire to communicate consumption and ranges closer to reality.

Figures that consumers will soon be able to find more easily, at least in Germany, where a new law has just strengthened the information displayed on the product sheets of new cars, both online and in dealerships.

A reinforced product sheet

This is the site Alternative Mobil, an official website of the German state on the automotive energy transition, which informs us of the improvements made to this product sheet. Here are the big new features:

• The figures for consumption, CO2 emissions and autonomy are finally moving to the WLTP cycle and are now decorrelated from the weight of the car (Germany previously used NEDC figures, to which a scale according to weight was then applied);
• Concerning plug-in hybrid cars, manufacturers must now communicate the consumption and CO2 emissions of the model once its battery is discharged (and this often has nothing to do with it);
• A section dedicated to costs is also introduced, with an annual mileage of 15,000 km. Part concerns energy costs, whether for fuel, gas, hydrogen or electricity, but also the amount of the CO2 tax, included in fuel prices, according to three evolution hypotheses in the next ten years.

Finally, note that these product sheets will be displayed more clearly, particularly on brand websites and in dealerships.

The good news is that the consumption figures will now be more comprehensive. We will find mixed WLTP consumption, as is currently the case in France. But also four other consumptions, simulating urban, peri-urban journeys, on secondary network roads and on motorways. This allows different electric cars to be compared simply and much more precisely in terms of consumption.

A display favorable to electric cars

Inevitably, this information is favorable to electric cars. With zero CO2 exhaust emissions, lower energy costs and the absence of CO2 tax, this new product sheet is obviously beneficial to this type of car. This could boost the German electric market, which is struggling after the surprise abandonment of the ecological bonus at the end of 2023.

This sheet is similar to its American counterpart, published by the EPA, which highlights even more the costs associated with the use of your car. It also surpasses what we find in France, which must be content with vehicle identification (make, model, engine), WLTP consumption and the energy label (the classification of CO2 emissions between A and G ).

Even if we have no news regarding the arrival of this German product sheet with us, it is always desirable to have as much information as possible for the consumer. Let’s hope that an equivalent arrives in our dealerships soon. Note that Volkswagen is making the effort in France to provide more information than its competitors, and in particular all electrical consumption.

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