Reforming EU car labels: How to achieve consumer-friendly transparency?

Nikolai Badenhoop and Max Riedel

No 433, SAFE Working Paper Series from Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE

Abstract: We examine the EU car labelling regime for CO2 emissions and fuel efficiency under Directive 1999/94/EC and document strongly diverging national labelling methodologies. Our contribution is fourfold. First, we distil the most relevant economic and behavioural research findings on car labelling. Labels effectively help consumers make informed decisions if they are well-designed, comprehensible, and informative about hidden costs. Second, we compare the national car labelling methodologies and find stark inconsistencies, undermining the EU's effort to decarbonise the car sector. Empirically, we find heterogeneous distributions of the national labels if applied to the national and EU car fleets. Third, we assess the EU energy efficiency labelling regime for electric appliances under Regulation (EU) 2017/1369 as a labelling role model. Finally, we propose a standardised EU car label with comparative information in two distinct coloured scales using absolute labelling thresholds for CO2 emissions and fuel or energy efficiency.

Keywords: Car labels; CO2 emissions; Energy efficiency; Fuel economy; Directive 1999/94/EC; Passenger cars; Sustainable transport (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K30 K32 L92 L98 Q48 Q58 R4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env and nep-tre
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/305283/1/1906977267.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:safewp:305283

DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4994192

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in SAFE Working Paper Series from Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().