Improvements to new car fuel-efficiency slowing in Europe

According to the European Environment Agency, the fuel efficiency of new cars sold in the European Union (EU) continued to improve last year but at a slower rate.

The agency said that average CO2 emissions of a new car sold in 2016 were 118.1g CO2/km. This represents a decrease of 1.4g CO2/km (1.2 pr cent), compared to the previous year, according to provisional data.

This reduction is the smallest annual improvement recorded since 2006 for new cars sold in the EU.

Official emissions have, however, decreased by more than 22g CO2/km or 16 per cent since 2010, when an updated monitoring system started under the current EU legislation.

The EEA said that “the EU remains well below its target of 130g CO2/km set for 2015, but compared to 2016, annual improvements in vehicle efficiency need to significantly increase in each of the coming five years in order to achieve the second average emissions target of 95g CO2/km by 2021”.