Fleets help new cars achieve record low CO2 in June

Registrations of new fleet cars helped boost falling new car sales in June as well as drive down the average CO2 emissions of the UK car parc.

Adoption of low CO2 technologies has helped the UK new car fleet average CO2 figure drop to 138.9g/km in quarter two and 139.7g/km in the first half of the year, down from 144.2g/km in full year 2010 and 181g/km in 2000.

According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), which records the figures, new car registrations have fallen in each of the past 12 months, but although June's registrations were down 6.2%, they fell slower than the year-to-date rate, down 7.1% for the first half of 2011.

The increase in fleet share of 2% compared with June 2010 continues to demonstrate the important role the sector is playing in new car registrations, with a 3.4% rise over last year from January to June.

Registrations of diesel cars rose by 4% in June and are up by 7.5% over the first six months of 2011. The Volkswagen Golf was the best selling diesel model over the first six months of 2011, but was pushed into second place in June by the Vauxhall Insignia. The overall best seller was the Ford Fiesta.