Mobility replaces 700 diesel cars with gasoline-powered ones
Mobility is responding to the diesel scandal: Starting in the spring, the car-sharing provider will replace 700 diesel vehicles with gasoline-powered ones. At the same time, Mobility is calling for more transparency in emissions figures.
Since it is currently unclear how much nitrogen oxide diesel engines actually emit, the car-sharing provider is replacing Mobility will gradually replace 700 diesel vehicles with gasoline-powered ones starting in the spring. She believes that legislation and the manufacturers have a duty to ensure transparency as quickly as possible.
Share instead of buy
Studies show: The big sustainable lever of car sharing is that users share cars instead of buying one themselves. In Switzerland alone, 30,000 fewer private cars are on the roads thanks to Mobility. But it is not only the concept of sharing that protects the environment, but also the carsharing cars themselves. "We only include the most energy-efficient vehicles possible in our fleet," explains Mobility communications manager Patrick Eigenmann. The company finds it all the more shocking that it is currently completely unclear how much nitrogen oxide small-displacement diesel engines emit in reality. "Experts assume a multiple of the manufacturer's data, but unfortunately there is no reliable information. That's why, as a first step, we're deciding to gradually replace 700 diesel cars with gasoline cars in the economy category." This corresponds to just under a quarter of the entire Mobility fleet.
The dilemma: the more gasoline, the more CO2
The fact that Mobility is increasing the proportion of gasoline-powered cars puts the cooperative in a dilemma: Although gasoline-powered cars emit less nitrogen oxide than diesel vehicles, they also emit more CO2. "It will therefore be more difficult for us to achieve the federal government's CO2 targets," Eigenmann knows. On the basis of current manufacturer specifications, the car-sharing provider believes it is absolutely still in a position to do so, but as soon as new test procedures such as the WLTP test are introduced that show more realistic values, "the federal government will probably be called upon to adjust its specifications downward," he says. In general, Mobility welcomes all measures on the part of legislation and manufacturers that serve to determine more transparent, more realistic emission values.
