Road transport is responsible for 17.5% of overall greenhouse gas emissions in Europe and its emissions increased by 23% between 1990 and 2009. To reduce the CO2 emissions of the road transport sector, European legislation has introduced mandatory CO2 emissions limits for new passenger cars. The average emission level of a new car registered in the European Union in 2010 was 140.3 gCO2/km. Overall, car manufacturers must achieve a CO2 emission target of 130g CO2/km by 2015 as an average value for the fleet of new cars registered in the EU. This target will be gradually phased in from 2012.                            

Specific emission targets (expressed as an amount of CO2 emissions per vehicle kilometre) are assigned to each car manufacturer (or pools of manufacturers) depending on the average mass of the fleet. A manufacturer (or pools of manufacturers) producing on average larger new cars has a higher target.                                                

The new data published by the EEA today considers the distance to the 2012 and 2015 targets for the vehicles sold in 2010, showing which manufacturers must make further progress towards the targets. Fines for failing to meet the target (also known as ‘excess emissions premiums’) will be calculated on a progressive scale for each additional gram of CO2 above the target, multiplied by the number of cars sold.

Prof. Jacqueline McGlade, EEA Executive director, said: 'Today people use many forms of transport, but cars still represent a big part of everyday life. The data show that most car manufacturers have already met their individual 2012 targets. However, several others need to continue their current trend of year-on-year efficiency'.