The race is on to meet average carbon dioxide (CO2) emission targets ahead of 2015 – with new data showing that several carmakers need to act quickly.
According to the European Environment Agency (EEA), while most car manufacturers have met their targets for 2012, several need to make their fleets even more efficient and almost all manufacturers must reduce emissions in order to meet 2015 targets under European legislation.
In 2010, the average emission level of a new car registered in the European Union (EU) stood at 140.3g/km of CO2 – but the target for 2015 is 130g/km. This applies as an average value for the fleet of new cars registered in the EU. In turn, specific emission targets are given to each carmaker depending on the average mass of the fleet with manufacturers producing larger new cars having higher targets.
According to the new data, 32 manufacturers have reached their 2012 specific emissions target two years in advance – that’s almost 80 per cent of 2010 registrations in the EU. Anyone who is non-compliant by 2012 could face fines adding up to €10billion.
Among the leading carmakers, Toyota is already compliant with its 2012 target and is also less than 1g/km of CO2 from the more stringent 2015 target. In addition, Peugeot and Citroen are also close to their 2015 target – needing to cut their emissions by less than 5g/km to reach their goal.
However, some manufacturers face a much steeper challenge. Daimler, Honda, Nissan, General Motors, Mazda and Dacia will all need to reduce their average emissions by more than 14g/km over the next five years.
