The motor industry is ‘extremely’ unlikely to hit its EU set target of a fleet average of 130g/km of CO2 by 2013, according to Clean Green Cars.
The claim comes as the website releases details of the industry’s performance in the third quarter of 2010, where the average CO2 emitted by new cars stood at 143.35g/km, compared to 145.6 g/km of CO2 in the first quarter.
According to the website’s publisher, Jay Nagley, there would need to be a quantum leap in performance to meet the target. The end of the scrappage scheme in the second quarter of this brought brought an end to the easy CO2 reductions from increased sales of small cars. Now that industry is moving back to traditional buying patterns, more medium sized cars are being sold, influencing the CO2 performance. Overall CO2 improvement so far this year has been marginal, despite the fact that individual models are performing better, simply because customers are now buying bigger cars.
Jay Nagley explains: "Car manufacturers are introducing new technology, particularly in petrol engines, to reduce CO2 emissions. This is encouraging, but they are now a long way behind the curve. The chances of the whole industry hitting 130g/km by 2012 look extremely slim."
There are now four manufacturers below the overall EU target. The three lowest CO2 manufacturers are:
Toyota 124.68 g/km
Fiat 124.70 g/km
Mini 128.67 g/km
Citroen 129.99 g/km
