The youth section of the swiss Green party has achieved a significant milestone in its fight for more environmentally and people friendly cars. The proposed measure would ban any passenger vehicle that:

- has a kerb weight of more than 2.2 tons (4820 lbs)

- or emits more than 250g of CO2 per km

- or has a front facia "dangerous for pedestrians"

Diesel cars without particle filter would be forbidden as well. Non-compliant cars registered before the measure goes into law would be governed at a 100 km/h (62 mph) speed limit.

The measure, seen as moderate by its proponents, would slash all but the most economic models from Switzerland's roads (see list of forbidden models). In Porsche's line-up, all but the Boxster and Cayman 2.7 would be barred. AMG Mercedes, Motorsport BMWs and S/RS Audis would be memory. In the Italian department, none of the Ferrari, Maserati or Lamborghini models would be street legal. Lotus would become dominant, all of its current line-up, including the Elise SC, would be compliant. At least until the measures get more restrictive. In the SUV segment, one of the only survivors would be the Lexus RX400h, but X5, X6, Cayenne, ML and the likes would see the ax.

Switzerland's direct democracy system allows any topic to be put on the ballot if more than 100'000 citizens petition for it (out of a population of 7 millions). To become law, the initiative must then be accepted by a majority of citizens and a majority of Switzerland's 26 states, or cantons. The vote is not scheduled yet and could be a couple of years away. More than 90% of initiatives presented to the swiss people got rejected since 1848.