Error parsing XSLT file: \xslt\FacebookOpenGraph.xslt The 20 greenest fleet brands
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The 20 greenest fleet brands

Date: 02 April 2008

Green issues are increasingly dominating business thoughts, but which brands are doing the most to help fleets cut emissions? Paul Barker investigates

There's no hotter topic in the business car arena at the moment than that of the environment. But with so many car manufacturers doing so many different things to try and cut CO2, which brands are best for your fleet and which need to work harder?

We've done the maths and worked out the green rating for each of the UK's top 20 fleet brands.

Taking useful data from the website www.cleangreencars.co.uk, we've looked at each brand's average emissions in 2007, as well as the percentage reduction on 2006 to illustrate which manufacturers are cutting CO2 output.

Then we've looked at the top three best-selling fleet models for each brand, and how their average emissions (according to www.cleangreencars.co.uk) compare with the average for their sector (taken from Jato), sourced from data firm Jato. That gives the premium brands some degree of chance, because they'll be scoring points if they can offer a greener alternative than their rivals, and not comparing a hatchback with a prestige saloon. After all, there's no point trying to convince company directors out of their executive models and into an eco-friendly supermini, but it's still better for the environment if they can drive a more eco-friendly model in the same class.

We've also awarded points according to the eco-friendliness of the company's lowest-emitting model, as well as taking a view on three other categories - rating each brand's current environmental effort, declared future environmental effort and the breadth of its offering. It's all well and good having one model that's super-green, but it should be backed up by different alternatives for different tastes, budgets and requirements.

Here are our results:

Audi 38%

Audi has been left behind by BMW in terms of premium brand eco offering. There's more in the pipeline but it's badly needed.

BMW 74%

Efficient Dynamics has had a huge impact compared with the score of other premium brands. More smaller engines would improve things further.

Citroen 78%

Cracking result for the French brand, grabbing the bronze medal position. It could have been even better if Citroen was showing signs of adopting more eco technology in its larger models.

Fiat 66%

Lowest average CO2

The king of the small cars benefits from the lower CO2 its city cars and superminis average, though the lower medium Bravo's sub-121g/km offering shows there are more strings to Fiat's bow.

Ford 64%

A tale of what might have been if we'd waited a couple of months. Econetic will play a big part in Ford's future, so expect a better score next year.

Honda 68%

Another brand where new models on the horizon would have had a big impact on an already impressive score. A cheaper hybrid coming next year could well be joined by a third petrol-electric model not long afterwards.

Kia 58%

The Korean brand has made great steps to match the quality of European brands, while the forthcoming eco-technology for the Ceed, its biggest fleet seller, should make Kia even more popular in the corporate arena.

Land Rover 36%

Highest average CO2

An impressive 4.1% reduction in average CO2 emissions fails to mask the obvious - Land Rover builds large off-roaders that aren't going to sit well in an environmental context. Carbon offsetting is an clever and innovative move.

Continued on page 2



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