The Wrong Side of my Car

The blog that wants to go obsolete

The consequences of stupid greenwashing

Greenwashing means marketing a product by pretending it is somehow good for the environment.

This amusing example showed up on my Twitter feed.

Sometimes it is amusing. Sometimes it does some damage.

Diesels

In Belgium diesel engines have long been a popular choice for people buying a new car. It was cheaper at the pump, and it is particularly popular for the many company owned cars on Belgian roads (a bit more derisively known as salary cars — long story).

And in 2008 this popularity got turbocharged (pardon the pun) by something called the eco bonus (ecopremie). Cars which emit less than 105 g of CO₂ per km would get a 15% cashback from the government. Because climate change. It was announced a bit later that the registration tax would also get cheaper depending on CO₂ emissions. If you were buying a small car in 2010 you were strongly incentivised to look for low CO₂ emissions, which de facto meant choosing a diesel.

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