0 Emission: Citroën AirDream: the French marque's eco-label

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Citroën AirDream: the French marque's eco-label

Filed under: Biodiesel, Diesel, Flex-Fuel, Hybrid, PSA, Citroen

PSA recently announced the Blue Lion label for the environmental friendlier Peugeot cars and we have just learned that Citroën's name for the line is going to be AirDream. To earn a Blue Lion/AirDream label, a Citroën car must have: CO2 emissions below 130 g/km when running on fossil fuels, under 158 g/km if the vehicles is running on diesel (all Citroën diesel models are B30 compatible, B30 is also called diester in France), under or 200 g/km when running on E85.

As the "Blue Lion" cars, vehicles must be manufactured in factories which are certified ISO 14001. This certification states that a certain company works respectfully with the environment. Moreover, and beating the mandatory EU Directive 2005/64/EC deadline by one year, the cars must be mostly (95 percent) reusable and/or recyclable.

The truth is that many Citroën (and Peugeot) models will achieve this label. In general, PSA has 30 percent of the market segment of vehicles that produce less than 120 g of CO2 per km. If we consider the 110 g/km boundary, the percentage is even greater: 60 percent. This is a direct consequence of the widespread use of the 1.0 liter unit which can be found in the Peugeot 107 - Citroën C1 (and Toyota Aygo) and Citroën C2, or the 1.4 HDi found in the former two models, plus the Peugeot 1007 and 207 and Citroën C2 and C3 (this engine also comes in the Ford Fiestas).

As with the Peugeot 307 and it's just-arrived replacement, the 307, there are rumors that say that its sibling, the Citroën C4, might have a hybrid powertrain mated to the 1.6 HDi engine good for more than 69 mpg and less than 90 g/km of CO2.

Gallery: C-Cactus Concept CitroÃ«n