New CO2 Average

UK motor industry body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) claims 56% of new cars sold in the UK during 2010 boasted CO2 emissions figures below 140g/km. New car emissions of CO2 continued to fall at an increased rate year-on-year, dropping 3.5% over 2009’s figures and representing a cumulative drop in new car CO2 emissions of 20.3% since 2000.

The data comes from the release of the SMMT’s annual New Car Carbon Dioxide (CO2) report for 2011, out today.

The presence of lower-polluting new vehicles in the overall UK vehicle parc (the total fleet of new and existing vehicles on the roads) has driven parcwide CO2 levels down 7.8% since 2000, and 2.7% since 2009.

This is partly thanks to new vehicles, and also due to reduction of higher-polluting vehicles via legislation and scrappage incentive schemes. The overall reduction also comes in spite of an increased number of vehicles on the road, and greater average distances travelled compared to 2000.

Diesel’s rise continues

One notable trend has been market penetration of diesel-powered cars. In 2000 petrol powered cars held 85.9% of the market, with 14.1% diesels. By 2009 diesels had grabbed 41.7%, and rose to 46.1% in 2010. Diesels have become the powerplant of choice in the dual purpose (SUV), executive, MPV, upper medium and luxury segments - all classes where diesels now represent over 60% of annual sales.