South Austrian politician Nick Xenophon is pushing for carmakers to only publish fuel figures that vehicles can actually meet during normal use.
He plans to introduce a private member’s bill to federal parliament that will force manufacturers’ fuel consumption figures to be accurate and achievable in the real world.
Xenophon also wants there to be consequences for car companies whose fuel use figures can’t be matched, with no “wiggle room” permitted.
“The figures we’ve seen recently are that some vehicles can burn between 25 and 133% more fuel than claimed by their manufacturers,” he told ABC radio.
“That is a huge discrepancy and that’s why we need to tighten up both Australian consumer law, but also the rules surrounding emission standards and consumption figures, so that consumers actually know what’s going on.”
Fuel figures are taken from a dynamometer or rolling road-based programme of highway, city and stop-start driving.
There are moves in some countries to introduce more accurate figures to reflect ordinary consumer use.
“There ought to be massive fines for car makers that have gained fuel figures with a power to give affected motorists compensation,” said Xenophon.
“Look if there’s a discrepancy of anything more than 10 per cent I think that ought to trigger an inquiry, it ought to trigger a process as to whether the car company ought to give compensation back to consumers.”
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