Car makers are going green but British motorists are not, shows new European study
Car makers are being forced to make significant cuts in their
vehicles’ CO2 emissions, but some countries appear reluctant to
buy the greenest models – British motorists languish at sixteenth
place in a league table of who buys the most polluting models in
Europe, according to a study carried out on behalf of the
Environmental Transport Association (ETA).
Portuguese drivers are the greenest in Europe when it comes to
buying cars with an average CO2 rate of 138g/km
(eg. VW Polo) – the least green motorists are from Latvia
with a figure of 177g/km (eg. Suburu Imprezza). The average British
driver comes sixteenth in the list with 158g/km (eg. VW Passat).
EU regulation is striving to cut the CO2 emitted by cars to an
average figure of 130 g/km by 2015.
Director at the ETA, Andrew Davis, said: “Car makers can build green
cars, but they need us to buy them. The report found that strict new
emissions laws are having a strong effect on the availability of
cleaner cars, but wealth, motoring taxes, fuel prices and consumer
attitudes, which vary wildly from country to country across Europe,
have much more of an effect on how clean a car is chosen.”
”There was a fuss in Britain when road tax increased for the
most-polluting cars, but we are lax by European standards – we need
a more sophisticated carrot and stick approach to encouraging people
to drive lighter cars if we want to do better in next year’s league
table.”
League table results:
Ranking 2008. Country/Average CO2 2008(g/km)/AverageCO2 2007/Rank 2007
1. Portugal / 138 / 144 / 1
2. France / 140 / 149 / 4
3. Italy / 145 / 147 / 2
4. Denmark / 146 / 160 / 12
5. Malta / 147 / 148 / 3
6. Belgium / 148 / 153 / 5
7. Spain / 148 / 153 / 6
8. Poland / 153 / 154 / 7
9. Hungary / 153 / 155 / 10
10. Czech Republic / 154 / 154 / 8
11. Slovenia / 156 / 156 / 11
12. Romania / 156 / 155 / 9
13. Ireland / 157 / 162 / 13
14. Netherlands / 158 / 165 / 15
15. Austria / 158 / 163 / 16
16. Great Britain / 158 / 165 / 16
17. Luxembourg / 160 / 166 / 18
18. Greece / 161 / 165 / 17
19. Finland / 163 / 165 / 22
20. Germany / 165 / 169 / 19
21. Cyprus / 166 / 170 / 20
22. Lithuania / 170 / 177 / 21
23. Sweden / 174 / 181 / 23
24. Estonia / 177 / 182 / 24
25. Latvia / 181 / 183
Car makers – Ranking by average CO2 in 2008
Ranking in 2008. Manufacturer/ranking 2007/ Average CO2 in 2008(g/km)
1. Fiat/ 2 / 138
2. Peugeot-Citroen / 1 / 139
3. Renault / 3 / 143
4. Toyota / 4 / 147
5. Hyundai / 7 / 149
6. Ford / 8 / 152
7. GM / 5 / 153
8. Honda / 6 / 154
9. BMW / 12 / 154
10. Suzuki / 9 / 156
11. Mazda / 13 / 158
12. VW / 10 / 159
13. Nissan / 11 / 161
14. Daimler / 14 / 175
Tags: cars, eco-friendly, UK