Portugal is the first European country to achieve emissions below 130 grams per kilometer, according to a new report from market researchers JATO Dynamics.
With an average of 127.4g/km, Portugal moved ahead of France last year to become the European country with the lowest CO2 emissions for new cars. Automakers need to reduce their overall fleet CO2 in Europe to 130g/km by 2015 to avoid fines. The 2010 industry average for new cars was 140.9g/km down from 145.9g/km, according to JATO.
France finished second in 2010 with an average of 130.8g/km followed by Denmark (131.7g/km), Italy (132.8g/km) and Ireland (133.0g/km). In 2009, France was No. 1 with an average of 133.5g/km while Portugal was second at 133.9g/km.
Switzerland finished last year with the highest average CO2, 161.6g/km, followed by Sweden (152.3g/km) and Germany (151.6g/km). (For full results click on the European CO2 emission per country, 2010 PDF, right)
For the report, titled A Review of CO2 Car Emissions across Europe FY2010, JATO analyzed data from 21 European markets.
