Brazil Debuts Fuel Efficiency Labelling for Vehicles

To give you an idea of what this means, step inside a household appliance store. Have you ever seen a home appliance and the energy efficiency sticker on it in your local store? That's pretty much want Brazil will do to cars, only in a different manner and with a different goal.

Unlike its Northern counterparts, which imposed mileage limits to be reached by 2016, the Brazilian government counts on the consumers to push manufacturers into developing fuel efficient vehicles, just-auto.com reported.

To make the long story short, manufacturers who desire so will provide fuel consumption data for their vehicles to an independent agency. Fuel economy, in kilometer per liter, will be made public every October.

The fuel ratings grade starts from A (best) and ends with E (worst). Up until now, the companies who submitted data for their vehicles stand as follows: VW Golf, Honda Fit, Fiat Mille, Kia Picanto and VW Polo BlueMotion rated the best. At the opposite end stand Fiat Palio, Idea and Siena.

As was to be expected, most manufacturers turned their backs on the rating. As it is not mandatory (yet), Citroen, Ford, Mercedes, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Peugeot, Renault and Toyota have said no to the proposal. What's strange about their decision is that most of them already have fuel-efficient technologies which would surely grant them an A.

Unofficially, some of the companies said they will not provide these figures out of fear that they may become subject to court action should their data not be the same as the ones obtained in the real world.

Brazil will use the data obtained from the manufacturers as reference only, but we all know that once down this road, consumers may put fuel efficiency in the balance perhaps more than they did before when choosing a car. And their opinion may push more and more manufacturers into accepting the labelling.