Buyers Choose Cars with Lower CO2 Emissions

Published Date: 8th Jul 2007

Research by economists at the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders has revealed a dramatic shift in the new car market, with hundreds of thousands of buyers moving into cars with lower CO2 emissions.

By comparing road tax bands, which are based on tailpipe CO2, the figures show 60.7% of new cars sold in 2006 fell within the cleanest bands A-D (under 165g/km) compared with just 43.1% in 2000.

‘There has been a noticeable shift in the new car market’, commented SMMT Chief Executive Christopher MacGowan, ‘This is partly due to concerns about motoring costs and partly because reducing their climate change impact is important to more buyers. However, we should not underplay significant fuel economy and CO2 savings from technological advances in new models, including premium brands’.

Recently launched British-built models highlight this improvement. The new Mini Cooper for example, built in Oxford, is 19% better on fuel economy and 16% on CO2 emissions than its predecessor. Halewood’s Land Rover Freelander 2 petrol boasts a 10% improvement on fuel consumption and emissions over the model it replaced while a new range of fuel-efficient models has helped Jaguar cut average tailpipe CO2 by 31.5% since 1997.

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