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Volkswagen has made noise with pretensions of being the greenest automaker.

Greenpeace UK has taken a look at Volkswagen’s claims and determined that those pretensions could just be noisy greenwashing.  Volkswagen—which has previously stated it wants to be ‘the most eco-friendly automaker in the world’—has seriously dark-sided views on fuel efficiency standards and CO2 emissions. These include:

• Spending millions of Euros every year funding lobby groups who are trying to stop Europe increasing its commitment to greenhouse gas reductions from 20% to 30% by 2020. Progressive companies – from Google to Ikea, Sony, Unilever and Philips – support the target. Volkswagen can’t afford to be left behind.
• A history of lobbying against the strong European efficiency standards that we need to kick our oil addiction.
• Not committing to maximum efficiency in all its car model. Only 6% of the cars it sold in 2010 were its most efficient models.

Or, perhaps, just as the core of Darth Vader contained a kernel of decency that required (serious) pressure to bring out, Volkswagen’s intent might be better than their current reality.  As Greenpeace put it:

“There is good in Volkswagen. We feel it… But it seems the bosses at Volkswagen have been seduced by the dark side of the Force and left us with little choice but to challenge them. But it’s not too late. There’s a chance that together we can turn Volkswagen away from the dark side and into a Force for good, leading to a brighter future for us all.”

Volkswagen, The Dark Side, website