A decade in one number: SMMT's 2011 New Car CO2 Report and the UK's 144.2 g/km fleet average

Ten years into measuring, the UK industry's trade body could point to a single figure that summarized its progress: 144.2 grams of CO2 per kilometer (the British spelling is "kilometre"), the average for new cars registered in the UK in 2010. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) published that number on 16 March 2011 in its 10th annual New Car CO2 Report, describing a 3.5% drop on the previous year and a decline of more than 20% since 2000.

What the report recorded for 2010

The report's headline figures are all UK-market data for the 2010 registration year as published by SMMT. Beyond the fleet average, the document counted how many cars already sat below the thresholds that mattered for regulation and taxation at the time.

Among the specific findings the document carried:

• Almost 40% of new cars in the UK in 2010 emitted below 130 g/km CO2, against less than 1% in 2000.
• Nearly 40,000 vehicles registered in 2010 emitted under 100 g/km CO2 and were exempt from Vehicle Excise Duty (VED), the UK's annual vehicle tax.
• The four lowest-emitting VED bands, covering 0 to 130 g/km CO2, together accounted for almost 38.2% of the new car market, up from less than 0.9% in 2000.
• Reductions in average emissions were recorded across all model segments compared with 2009 levels.

The decade's progress was not evenly distributed across the market. Measured against 2000, the Executive and Mini segments showed the largest relative improvements, while the biggest single-year moves between 2009 and 2010 came at the top of the size range.

SMMT framed its figures against a regulatory deadline that then applied to manufacturers across Europe: a fleet-wide average of 130 g/km CO2 to be reached by 2015. On the report's own arithmetic, the UK market in 2010 was already some distance down that road, with the sub-130 g/km share of sales near 40% and the four lowest VED bands at 38.2% of the market.

The report's release was accompanied by a statement from Paul Everitt, then SMMT chief executive, attributing the reductions to new technology while arguing that further progress depended on coordinated support for research and development, infrastructure and consumer incentives. He placed fuel prices, energy security and climate change among shared international challenges.

• The primary source is SMMT's own press page for the report, dated 16 March 2011, which carries the fleet average, the year-on-year and since-2000 changes, the segment figures, the VED exemption count and the Everitt statement.
• The full report was made available as a download from that page; the figures above are the ones printed in the announcement itself.
• All numbers here are UK-market figures for the 2010 registration year as SMMT published them in 2011, with no conversion to other markets or test cycles.
• For the regulatory target referenced, the document cites a Europe-wide fleet average of 130 g/km CO2 by 2015; the current status of that and later targets should be checked with the bodies that set them rather than inferred from this 2011 document.