PEUGEOT has unveiled a unique industry-first scheme which guarantees the fuel consumption of its cars. Fleets can cash in if the miles per gallon figure is not achieved.

The manufacturer aims to capitalise on its reputation for fuel economy by pledging to reimburse fleets if their Peugeot models fail to match the official combined fuel consumption figure published by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions.

The idea for the initiative originated from figures published in Fleet NewsNet which showed that in real life driving conditions few cars achieved their official fuel consumption figures. John Taylor, Peugeot's fleet and leasing director, said: 'Peugeot is so confident in the fuel economy of its cars that we are prepared to offer fleets who join the scheme the guarantee that the Peugeot cars on the fleet will achieve as a minimum the published fuel consumption figures.

'Peugeot will reimburse the cost of fuel consumed, over the consumption predicted, by using Government-published mpg figures.'

Participating fleets will have to use the Peugeot fuel card, developed in conjunction with PHH Vehicle Management Services, and accepted throughout PHH's AllStar network. Companies must run at least 10 Peugeot cars to qualify for the scheme, but they do not have to run solus Peugeot policies.