This Guardian has an interesting article about the greening of the Paris Motor Show. My favourite bit is the quote from Audi when asked why they were showcasing a gas guzzler when all the other stands were promoting small cars.

"That's Audi's business, big cars. That's what we do."

So it comes down to this - German car makers are determined to carry on producing big cars when the car buyers across Europe are turning to smaller, cheaper cars. Which means they're not making money, at least not as much money as they'd like.

In the real world, you would think the solution was obvious - start selling what the people want and the people will buy it. But no, the gas guzzling solution is to stick to what they've always done.

Maybe that's why ACEA has demanded a 40 billion euro loan from the EU to help meet the cost of energy efficiency improvements.

And that's presumably why the car industry is lobbying hard in Brussels to get targets delayed and watered down. So that they can carry on making big cars, because "that's what they do."

If you agree that we can't let them get away with that, sign the petition to German Chancellor Merkel. If you've already signed - ask your friends to sign.