BMW, Mazda lead the way as auto emissions fall: Survey

BMW and Mazda lead the way in cutting auto emissions, well ahead of their rivals in the hunt for cleaner cars as new European Union targets begin to bear green fruit, a report showed today.

Taking cars made by 14 major automakers into account, the average CO2 fall per car was put at 3.3 per cent, the European Federation for Transport and Environment said.

German automaker BMW achieved the best results in 2008, with CO2 down by an average 10.2 per cent, according to the results of the group's survey.

Japanese maker Mazda cut its car emissions by 8.2 per cent over the same period, the transnational industry group said, stressing that the figures reflect cuts in emissions, which is easier for higher polluters to do than their cleaner rivals.

Nevertheless the 3.3 per cent emissions drop in 2008, measured across 14 major car makers, shows that new EU rules on emissions are having an effect, said federation director Jos Dings.  "If the overall drop in average CO2 emissions was purely related to the financial crisis, fuel prices or changing consumer behaviour, we would have expected to see every company reducing much more equally," he said.

"But what is actually happening is that car makers are seeing how far they have to cut and changing their fleets accordingly," he added.