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Green rush
Date: 17 April 2008
First it was Ford saying it couldn't get enough of its low-CO2 Econetic cars, now it's VW's turn with its Bluemotion models.
It's not surprising that low CO2 cars are popular, given that taxation on company cars is based on CO2. But what is surprising is the level of this popularity. It's certainly caught the car makers by surprise, and they are having to manage customers' expectations on delivery times.
With so many manufacturers rushing to get their eco sub-brands to market, the problem is unlikely to be overall supply in future. Instead, the issue will be differentiating between these new eco brands.
Already we have Efficient Dynamics from BMW, with Mercedes' Blue Efficiency in hot pursuit. Then there's Bluemotion from VW and Ecomotive from sister firm Seat - not to be confused with Ford's Econetic brand.
As ever, the business car manager's job will be to keep abreast of the green credentials of these environmental brands.
In an unashamed trumpet-blowing move, one of the most useful tools to assess CO2 figures is BusinessCar's online company car tax calculator, which now allows you to sort a list of sub-121g/km cars by make, model, CO2, gearbox and tax costs.
Check it out online at www.businesscar.co.uk/taxcalculator.
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