Buying a new car

The more fuel efficient a car is, the lower will be its CO2 emissions, saving you money on fuel, Vehicle Excise Duty and, if you live in a Controlled Parking Zone, on your parking permit.

In general, smaller cars and models with smaller engines produce less CO2 but there can be big differences in fuel efficiency between cars of the same model or type. CO2 emissions of similar size cars can vary as much as 45%.

Fuel efficiency

For all new cars appearing in UK car showrooms since 2005, information on fuel efficiency and CO2 emissions can be found on a fuel economy label which grades each car from A (the cleanest) to G (the most polluting) – similar to the labels found on new electrical appliances.

This allows you to assess the climate change impacts and running costs of different cars. If these labels are not displayed please ask your car sales staff for the information.

The CO2 emission bands for vehicles registered on or after 1st March 2001 are as follows:

* g/km = grammes of CO2 per kilometre travelled

Source: Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA)

Alternatively you can find this and other information by using the Car Fuel Database which allows you to search for cars by make/model, fuel economy, alternative fuel type and running costs. For more tips on buying a new car, visit the Act on CO2 website.