The European Commission is considering a weight-based system to regulate CO2 auto emissions that would ease the pressure on Germany's luxury and sports carmakers.

The Commission is drawing up legislation to force automakers selling cars in Europe to reduce average CO2 emissions from new cars to 130 grams per kilometer by 2012 from about 160 g/km now.

French and Italian carmakers wanted a regulation that will apply to individual manufacturers. Fiat, Renault and PSA/Peugeot-Citroen would benefit because they mainly sell small cars that emit less CO2 than large premium cars sold by German carmakers such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche.

After German carmakers lobbied in Berlin and Brussels against what they considered to be unfair treatment, the commission appears to have backed down.

According to the Handelsblatt newspaper, the commission's latest proposals suggest the implementation of a model similar to Japan's weight-based system.

"There is some consensus around the fact that a weight-based target system looks to be sensible," Malcolm Harbour, a member of the European parliament, told Automotive News Europe .

A weight-based system would allow higher CO2 emissions for heavier or larger cars, thus easing the burden on makers of SUVs, sports cars and large sedans.

Porsche's average CO2 output is around 280 g/km, while BMW weighs in at an average of 190 g/km for its fleet of sporty sedans, SUVs and coupes.

Fiat, on the other hand, had average fleet emissions of 139 g/km in 2005, according to data by lobby group Transport & Environment.

Harbour said for such a system to be effective there needed to be incentives encouraging manufacturers to comply. This could take the form of penalty and bonus points like emissions certificates to be traded among automakers.

"The makers of small cars have to do their bit too," Eckehart Rotter, a spokesman for the German auto industry association, VDA, told ANE. "The ball is in the European Commission's court."

You may e-mail Tom Armitage at autonews@crain.com