THE French and Italians are renowned for making stylish ones, the Germans reliable ones, the British for not producing many at all any more. But wherever in Europe they are built, cars will have to be cleaner after 2012 under stringent carbon dioxide emission standards that the European Commission was due to agree on Wednesday.
New cars may emit no more than 130 grams of the greenhouse gas per kilometre. That is 10 grams more than the cap proposed by environment commissioner Stavros Dimas but tougher than the 140 g/km limit that car makers have volunteered to meet by 2009.…
