Peugeot-Citroën sold the "cleanest" cars in 2014

Average 123.4 grams per kilometer

Every new car that drove onto the European road, exhausted 123.4 grams of CO2 per kilometer on average, which is a 2.6 % drop compared to 2013. That is the conclusion of the tenth ‘How clean are Europe’s cars?‘ report, coming from the European organization for sustainable mobility Transport & Environment (T&E).

According to the European Environment Agency’s official statistics, Peugeot-Citroën has the cleanest cars on the road, with an average 110.1 grams per kilometer, just ahead of Toyota (112.8 grams) and Renault (113.6 grams).

Daimler (131.5 grams), BMW (131.7 grams) and Honda (133.9 grams) are the worst students in the class of the 15 most popular car manufacturers: they will have to do much better to reach the 130 grams maximum Europe will enforce this year.

The largest leap forward is for Nissan (which is ranked 4): It dropped from 130.9 grams to 115 grams, down 12 %. Ford (at 6 with 121.7 grams) and Hyundai (11th with 130.5 grams) have slipped however.

Two remarks

Ever since the European Union first enforced efficiency norms for cars, the average exhaust has dropped 37 grams CO2 per kilometer, which is 1.5 l per 100 kilometers. That is not bad, but Transport & Environment had 2 remarks for the current results.

The ‘mere’ 2.6 % CO2 drop from last year is not as well as in the 2007-2014 period, when it dropped 3.6 % on a yearly basis. On the other hand, it also asks consumers to question the manufacturers’ official numbers. “Car manufacturers manipulate their tests to claim their cars need a lower amount of fuel, with manipulation at such a level that only half of the measured benefits are actually realized”, T&E claims.

Goal: 95 grams / km by 2021

T&E also looks towards the future in its tenth edition, to 2021, when the new EU norm will be enforced: 95 grams / km (compared to 130 grams / km this year). The organization questions when the manufacturers will reach that goal by looking at the current achievements.

Volvo and Nissan would clearly be at the top, as both would reach the 95 grams / km goal in 2018. Peugeot-Citroën and Toyota would reach it in 2019 and Daimler in 2020. Renault would just barely manage to reach the new norm, with all other brands failing to reach the goal in time. At the current pace, Hyundai and Honda will only reach the European norm by 2027, which means they will have to pick up the pace a lot.