Toyota and Fiat first to meet CO2 targets

EU average emissions legislation met well before the 2012 deadline.

By David Williams Published: 12:31PM GMT 21 Jan 2010

Fiat's chic 500 contributed to the firm's low average emissions
Two major car firms have met EU CO2 emission targets way ahead of the 2012 deadline. Toyota and Fiat are now below the 130g/km of CO2 goal, with MINI about to join them.
The figures are obtained by establishing the average CO2 emissions of all cars across its range registered in the UK by each manufacturer in 2009.

Average emissions for all Toyotas sold last year now stand at 127.9g/km, with Fiat's at 129.7g/km, according to the Clean Green Cars website.
Their achievement means that no other car-maker now has the excuse not to reach the EU target, says the website's publisher, Jay Nagley.
Other marques "worthy of mention", he says, are Hyundai, which now has the fourth-lowest average CO2 figure (down by 9.9 per cent in one year), and Suzuki (down by 11.4 per cent).
In terms of absolute tonnes of CO2 saved, Ford has the largest reduction with just over 30,000 tonnes saved in 2009.
But Nagley gives a word of warning: "There was a very sharp drop in 2009 because the scrappage incentive encouraged buyers to move to smaller cars. We calculate that half the 2009 improvement was due to the scrappage scheme alone.
"In 2010 car manufacturers are going to have to improve the performance of their car markedly if they are to record any further reduction in CO2 overall."
The UK scrappage scheme is expected to end next month, or when cash put aside for the scheme runs out – whichever is soonest.