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EU Automakers Offer 20% CO2 Cut With Strings Attached

FRANKFURT, Sept 13 (Reuters) - European carmakers offered a further 20 percent cut to average carbon dioxide emissions in the next round of EU goals currently being drawn up, but said full compliance should wait until 2030 and remain conditional on consumer uptake of electrified cars.

The industry needs a "clear and foreseeable time frame" for emissions goals beyond 2021, when a new limit of 95 grammes of CO2 per kilometre is due to enter force, said Daimler boss Dieter Zetsche, who currently chairs Brussels-based ACEA, the main European carmakers' association.

The further 20 percent cut proposed by ACEA would reduce average CO2 emissions goal to 76 grammes per kilometre.

Full implementation of the next round of goals should be conditional on consumer acceptance of the dozens of electric cars and rechargeable hybrids currently in development, Zetsche also told reporters at the Frankfurt auto show.

"This conditionality principle links Europe's long-term climate objectives to the reality of the market," he said. (Reporting by Laurence Frost and Agnieszka Flak; Editing by Maria Sheahan)