Green Car Success
Green Car Success story
The latest research from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) revealed that average CO2 emissions for new cars stood at 149.5g/km last year. Even more encouragingly, the number of vehicles sold with emissions below the 120g/km threshold nearly doubled over the last 12 months from just 11 per cent in 2008 to 20.4 per cent in 2009.
Across the entire UK fleet of 30million cars, average CO2 emissions now stand at 175.1g/km. That is Europe’s third best net improvement since 2000.
Indeed the move towards green cars is noticeable across nearly all car sizes. Even the mini-car segment, which already produced vehicles with comparatively low emission levels, managed to make the best year-on-year segment improvement cutting CO2 emissions by 6.7 per cent. The luxury car segment, the most heavily polluting band, saw emissions fall by six per cent compared to 2008. Indeed cars with emissions in the range of 131-140g/km are now in the most popular band, down from the 151-160g/km sector last year.
What’s driving the success?
There are many reasons behind the drop in emissions including manufacturers pouring more money into producing more efficient engines. Simply put, cars are greener than they were two years ago and so it makes sense that emission levels should fall.
However, one of the key driving forces behind the change is government incentives, including emissions-linked vehicle excise duty and the scrappage incentive.
According to the SMMT, average CO2 emissions of cars bought through the scrappage scheme was 133.3g/km – that’s 26.8 per cent below the average emissions of vehicles being scrapped at 182.3g/km.
Faye Sunderland - www.thegreencarwebsite.co.uk