PARIS – Company cars are emitting more than 40 percent less carbon dioxide today than they were four years ago as fleets increasingly turn to low emission vehicles and reduce their annual mileages, according to analysis of vehicles added to ALD Automotive’s 47,000-strong fleet of 47,000 vehicles during the last five years, according to the Web site http://www.eeemsonline.co.uk.

Company cars delivered in January 2003 averaged 166.87 g/km of CO2; average annual mileage was 23,782 miles; and the average amount of CO2 emitted clocking up journeys was 6.43 tons per vehicle a year. By August 2007, company cars joining the fleet averaged 154.22 g/km of CO2 (7.6 percent less); average annual mileage had dropped to 15,139 — a cut of more than a third (36.4 percent) or 8,643 miles — with the amount of CO2 emitted averaging 3.79 tons, a reduction of 41.17 percent over 54 months.

The environmental impact of one person flying from London Heathrow to New York’s JFK Airport is calculated to be 0.61 tons of CO2. Therefore, the CO2 savings made by company car drivers taking delivery of a vehicle from ALD Automotive represent the equivalent of four fewer flights across the Atlantic by each person annually. Extrapolated across the UK’s company car fleet of 1.2 million vehicles [HM Revenue & Customs 2005/06 figure] this equates to a reduction of over three million tons of carbon dioxide being emitted into the atmosphere each year by company cars alone, according to www.eeemsonline.co.uk.

ALD Automotive is working toward obtaining international environmental management standard ISO 140001, and has recently added Honda Civic Hybrids to its pool fleet for use by customers as interim vehicles.