PASSENGER CAR WORKING GROUP MEETING Wednesday, 17 th June 2009, 14:30 17:30 BIS Conference Centre, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0ET

Transcription

1 PASSENGER CAR WORKING GROUP MEETING Wednesday, 17 th June 2009, 14:30 17:30 BIS Conference Centre, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0ET PCWG-M Minutes of the Meeting Present Blake Ludwig We Are Futureproof Caroline Watson EST Catherine Dove LowCVP Chris Brown LowCVP Daniel Lord DECC Danielle Chapman GM Declan O Mahony Motability Eva de Marchi Taylor Greg Archer LowCVP Ian Bown Lubrizol Ian Parsons BIS Jason Reakes BMW Joel Kenrick CBI Jonathan Murray LowCVP Luke Herbert JLR Liz Girling DfT Neil Fulton Millbrook Robert Walker SMMT Rupert Russell Carmen Data Simon Best IAM Sophie Hudson Toyota Stephen Powton DfT Tim Shallcross IAM Tom Callow Automotive PR Apologies Lynne Stevens DfT Mike Waters Arval Paul Nelson Allied Vehicles Peter Stokes VWG Sarah Kingsbury Global Insight Stewart Kempsell Shell 1. Welcome and apologies Attendees introduced themselves and the chair welcomed all participants. Apologies were noted. 2. Minutes and Matters arising Minutes (PCWG-M-09-02) accepted as an accurate record of February 2009 meeting. Actions were noted as completed or to be picked up on meeting to current agenda. 3. LowCVP Update 3. 1 Activity Report GA gave highlights of the Partnership s activities since February as detailed in paper PCWG-P as follows: 110 members already registered under newly incorporated LowCVP. GA encouraged members to join before end of June as discount

2 extended and certainly hoped current members who had not already done so, would sign up before end of current financial year. In the Budget a revision of way BSOG operates with an additional incentive for low carbon buses was announced. The new Chairman, Neville Jackson (Ricardo), was appointed and took up his role on 1 April. LowCVP s annual conference was held on 8 June. The recently appointed Secretary of State, Lord Andrew Adonis spoke at the conference in his first public appearance as SoS, together with London Mayor Boris Johnson. A video link was also made with the head of climate change initiatives in the San Francisco mayoralty. The initial feedback on the conference, garnered by a survey despatched to all attendees, has been very positive. A short video clip and pictures of the conference are to be uploaded to LowCVP website in the next week. Also launched at the conference was the a new Partnership initiative: The Low Carbon Technology Challenge: The Challenge has been welcomed by suppliers and vehicle manufacturers. PCWG members were invited to participate. As part of scheme, training is to be provided to innovators on how to best pitch to OEMs. Action: GM request to provide one-liner on meetings with government to establish what s covered. Members also invited to call secretariat if wish to discuss government liaison meetings. 3.2 Membership Council GA gave a summary of the MC s role detailed in paper PCWG-P These are that the Members Council is a sub-committee of the Board and has delegated responsibility for overseeing the work programme and crosssectoral projects, approving technical projects and inputting to strategic plans. GA informed the WG that nominations received thus far were from SMMT, Zeroshift, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and We Are Futureproof. Following discussion IAM put itself forward for consideration, Zeroshift withdrew its nomination considering it more appropriate for consideration through the Innovation WG and JLR stood aside in favour of SMMT. Thus the MC representatives were agreed by the Group as Konstanze Scharring for SMMT, Blake Ludwig for We Are Futureproof and a representative from the IAM (name tbc). It was also agreed that JLR and Automotive PR will be considered at the first meeting of the MC on 22 July as possible nominations for the additional spaces on the Members Council which have yet to be allocated. 4. Government Update 4.1 DfT Update Stephen Powton Lord Adonis was appointed Secretary of States for Transport and Sadiq Khan was appointed as the Minister of State. In addition Chris Mole and Paul Clarke are the Parliamentary Under Secretaries.

3 SP confirmed that Sadiq Khan had signed the Statutory Instrument for LowCVP to be added to the Environment Act which means LowCVP can be funded by DfT directly henceforth, rather than via EST. Lord Adonis launched the van CO2 database at LowCVP conference. This has gone live and is accessible via Buiness Link website as well as the VCA website. Along with the database there is guidance for van buyers on selecting the correct van which is fit for buyers purpose. The strategy for supporting Ultra Low Carbon Vehicles sets out in more detail how the DfT will be supporting ultra low carbon cars through the 250m, announced earlier this year. This will be through consumer incentives, infrastructure development and will be directed at local authorities and consortia bidding for funds. There will shortly be an announcement regarding the Low Carbon Vehicle Procurement Programme and finally an announcement is expected during the summer regarding the Low Carbon Industrial Strategy. Action: DfT to check if seeking input to how to spend 250k in response to query from Motability. 4.2 BIS Update Ian Parsons IP outlined the role of the BIS and stated that this would be refined into a mission statement in the near future. The ministerial team at BIS is headed up with Lord Mandleson as Sectretary of State, along with Pat McFadden, Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills, who acts as deputy and has cabinet rank. There are 9 ministers in total, those relevant to LowCVP members are Kevin Brennan for further education, skills and consumer policy and Ian Lucas for business matters and Lord Drayson, minister for science and innovation. The Automotive Unit specifically falls under Pat McFadden and Ian Lucas. Scrappage scheme was announced in Budget with an amount of 300m, equating to 1k off new car purchases, committed. The scheme is time limited to end of financial year or money expires. Scheme launched officially on 18 May. To date over 60k vehicles have been ordered. The NAIGT report was published and the Government response is currently being compiled. Government s Low Carbon Industrial Strategy is to be published over the summer, anticipated to be before Parliament s recess. Stakeholders comments on the Strategy can be made via Electrification of transport 23 June, progress on the ULCCC. BIS is presently in discussion with stakeholders. Action: As BIS has not yet be in touch with LowCVP, hence BIS to go back and find out who is the lead and let Secretariat know.

4 4.3 EC regulation of Car and Van CO2 Liz Girling provided an update on car and van CO2 regulation. Currently awaiting legislative proposal from EC on Van CO2 regulation, who claim this will be published in July but UK Government expect September to be more realistic. It is expected to be close to approach with car CO2, although there remain concerns over multistage vehicles. Car CO2 regulation is at the commentology stage. Two meetings planned regarding small volume manufacturers and monitoring and reporting. LowCVP urged UK Government to push to make information more transparent and available on monitoring. Data to begin to be collected from January LG confirmed the lead for the Labelling Directive is with Lynn Stevens team. 5. Car buyer attitudes and advertising survey results. Number of pieces of work commissioned by LowCVP over last few months have now been completed and were presented to the PCWG for the first time. 5.1 Car buyers survey 2009 Graham Dixon, GfK Automotive GD gave a presentation on outcomes of the 2009 car buyers survey including attitude to the label in choosing a new, as detailed in paper PCWG-P The survey was a web based survey of 2000 recent car buyers or people intending to purchase a car in the next 12 months. More than half of respondents were aware of the new car fuel economy label, 54% and 71% said the label was either important or fairly important in informing their car buying decision. The most important piece of information on the label was the cost of the running the car for 12,000km and the vast majority of respondents would like to see comparative data available, preferably in the showroom but also on line or in literature. The survey includes a small number of company car buyers. It was suggested that LowCVP considers how to collect information on this group separately in future. It was questioned whether there is still an action/attitude gap. LowCVP commissioned work in this area last year which pointed to a lack of ability by car buyers to utilise car CO2 and fuel consumption data. Action: Secretariat to consider what further work might be done in this area. Action: Secretariat to synthesise survey outcomes once dealer survey completed to provide a more complete view in order to ultimately influence government policy in this area.

5 5.2 Car advertising survey Jonathan Murray JM stood in for Tom Marshall of Ebquity, who was unavailable at short notice to present the results of the Car Advertising Survey Survey results detailed in paper PCWG-P Methodology from 2007 survey has been maintained. The main change made, however, is the focus in the 2008 survey on print media and billboards, and does not include television, which was found to be focused on brand image and consequently very difficult to analyse objectively. The key results were; Car Advertising in National Press Advertising spend for cars in VED bands A,B,C and D accounted for 53% of activity. CO2 and economy data is increasingly appearing in the body of the advert, rising from 7% to 11% during Value/Price most common message (24%) but CO2 and Economy combined accounted for the third most common message in 2007, at 12%. Car Advertising Outdoors 21% of 279 unique adverts surveyed contained CO2 emission fuel economy data. Significant increase in response to VCA guideline change. Look and Design, and Aspirational messages more important in outdoor advertising. CO2 and Economy less common. It was commented that it would be useful to normalise a number of the graphs where seasonal variation distorted the overall picture. 5.3 Car advertising Blake Ludwig, WAF WAF has been working on compliance and enforcement of labelling with respect to the EC directive. WAF has been examining consumer views on what information they would like to see when purchasing a new vehicle. To this end WAF commissioned YouGov to conducted an on-line survey to assess how people interpret CO2 and fuel consumption data. The survey used two posters one with tradition CO2 and fuel economy information and one with coloured label. The results were that only 3/10 respondents could correctly interpret the tradition CO2 fuel consumption data in the advert, this rose to above 50% using the colour coded label in the advert. A video was shown video displaying vox pops taken to show people s responses. This showed that four times as many people felt that colour bands made it easier to understand levels of CO2. It was noted that the video emphasised that greater consumer information, even at a basic level of mpg, is required, as well as being presented in the right way. Action: WAF to provide results of survey to LowCVP. 6. Work programme update Jonathan Murray

6 JM gave an update on progress with the work programme which is detailed in paper PCWG-P The highlights were: Car buyer survey and advertising surveys have both been completed. Those underway are the Van CO2 study, the Car dealer survey and the used car label pilot. A workshop looking at the details of the van CO2 study is to be held this summer. AEAT seeking additional funds to complete van study in order to incorporate new information provided by the recently launched van CO2 database. The used car label will be specific to a registration plate number and is due to be rolled out to dealers in July and the consumer in October. The SMMT has recommended to its members that their dealers adopt the used car scheme, following its car section meeting on 11 June. The car dealer results should be available by mid-summer and well in time for the next PCWG meeting scheduled for 9 September. SMMT requested that the mystery shoppers be well briefed as to what to look for in order to not confuse pre-registered vehicles displaying the HPI or Experian label. It was confirmed that SMMT and the brands involved will be able to view results and comment before they are published. The Partnership was requested by DfT to provide advice on best to use 250m announced in January. Next steps are pending from Government. The Secretariat has questioned government as to why vans are not included in the ULCC strategy and the reasons for the emphasis on electric cars only. 6.1 Fleet Commitment - Jonathan Murray The low carbon fleet declaration project component of the work programme is to commence imminent. The objective is to increase demand from fleet investors in low carbon vehicles by signing up to a commitment to do so. Par to this is to undertake a survey of work already on-going in this area and then mapping out the most appropriate way forward. The Dutch government has established programme called Clean Cars Contracts looking to increasingly integrate low carbon cars into vehicle fleets over period of a year. JM indicated he was seeking the views of the PCWG on the Dutch initiative and expressions of interest in participating in a sub-group to work on this work stream. It was agreed that this project should commence and that this would lead to a more detailed proposal for further work which the PCWG would be asked to approve before there would be a decision on wider implementation. 7.2 Improved consumer information Chris Brown The Act on CO2 campaign intends to moderate some of its methodologies with reference to consumer information. The current core message of campaign Save Fuel Save Money will in future focus will shift to CO2. focus on explaining that the car is one of biggest producers of CO2 to help motorists in looking at how and what they drive. An increase in advertising will take place in the autumn with CO2 as the central focus and saving money

7 secondary. Partnership marketing activity has been put on hold until new partnership opportunities are identified. Action: GA to feed back to government that this change in focus is not well received by LowCVP stakeholders. As part of Act on CO2 research it has been proposed a logo to be created to highlight best performing vehicles in the market and CB seeking to set up a sub-group to look at options with possibility of initiating a trial. If interested in participating, contact CB at chris.brown@lowcvp.org.uk. GM expressed interested in participating in the sub-group Marketing best practice guide CAP/BCAP consultation ends this Friday and thus any further input should be sent to CB by 2pm on Thursday 8. AOB LowCVP party conference activity this autumn will be in partnership with the Climate Clinic as in previous years including collaboration with Friends of the Earth and the New Economics Foundation. Joel Kenrick informed the meeting that the CBI has produced a low carbon roadmap and made copies available to attendees. The CBI will be working in the summer looking at the roadmap as the landscape changes. WAF requested that the next meeting date be reviewed as it clashes with other events on the day. Date of Next Meeting: Wednesday 9 th September 2009, 2pm SMMT, Forbes House, Halkin Street, London SW1X 7DS