Car industry urged to embrace clearer fuel efficiency labels

Car manufacturers are today being urged to extend the colour coded fuel efficiency labels displayed in car showrooms to their advertising material, after a major new survey revealed that customers find the labels easier to understand than the carbon emissions data included in current ads.

The poll of over 2,000 people found that less than a third of people correctly identified the efficiency of a fictional car called the "Marko" when the information was shown in text, as required by current advertising guidelines. However, 56 per cent were able to understand the level of efficiency for the car when the information was displayed in the colour-cded format already used in car showrooms.
"It's clear people don't understand what the raw CO2 and fuel economy numbers on car adverts mean, or how different cars compare in terms of "grams per kilometre ", so it's not enough just stating these figures in billboards and magazine adverts," argued Blake Ludwig of lobby group We Are Futureproof, which commissioned the YouGov poll. "Instead, the public needs to know how a car compares with others in terms of fuel efficiency and pollution."

The survey also found that over two thirds of people preferred the colour coded labels, compared to just 16 per cent who opted for the plain text at the bottom of the advert.

We Are Futurproof, which has been launched out of the Alliance Against Urban 4x4s, said that clearer labeling could benefit the ailing car industry.

Ludwig said that while overall car sales had fallen dramatically in recent months sales of smaller, more efficient cars were doing better than their peers – a fact that suggests there is a commercial case for clearer promotion of fuel efficient vehicles. "It's not simply a case of small cars being good and big cars being bad," he added. "If the format of the efficiency information changed, it would make it much easier for consumers to see that within every class of car, such as family estates, vehicles can have very different running costs."

The poll comes just days after the EU was accused of undermining the effectiveness of its A-G colour coded energy efficiency labelling scheme for electrical appliances by introducing new " Beyond A" labels detailing how much better than A rated certain appliances are.

Critics, including the UK Energy Saving Trust, said that the decision to introduce new labels rather than update the criteria for A rated products would confuse customers and make it harder for the them to identify the most energy efficient appliances.