Our top four CO2 emission beaters

You might have noticed this before, but we do tend to bang on about the green aspect of motoring here at Fleet Alliance and actively encourage the funding and fleet management of low emission and alternative fuel vehicles.

Now, that might have been wasted hot air, but I’m glad to see it’s not: our fleet has seen carbon emissions fall to an all-time low of 116g/km per car, for all the new models ordered for the first quarter of 2015.

So what does this figure mean to us and for the wider business? Well, despite the changes to BIK taxation for the 2015/16 tax year, our corporate customers have clearly seen the long-term benefits of choosing greener models.

Looking closer at our data, it shows that 28% of all those new cars ordered across the 18,000-strong Fleet Alliance vehicle fleet are now sub 100g/km CO2 vehicles, with another 81% producing less than 129 g/km – so the green message appears to be getting through to the drivers and fleet managers.

In fact, the top 10 most popular models on our company car fleet all emit 95g/km of CO2 or less, with the greenest being the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV at 44g/km. On top of this accolade, the latest figures from the SMMT show that this Mitsubishi is also the UK’s most popular ULEV (Ultra-Low Emission Vehicle).

Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV So why is the Mitsubishi doing so well? Well mainly because of the low tax bands, which will save company drivers a fortune, plus there’s no price premium over the standard Outlander and the hybrid technology works well – particularly around town and there are few compromises over owning the PHEV rather than the standard car.

Lexus CT Hybrid The Mitsubishi is followed by the Lexus CT Hybrid, with emissions of 82g/km. Much more than a luxurious Prius, we now include this car on our own company car policy to encourage staff to take up the green option.

Skoda Octavia Estate In third place, comes the more conventional Skoda Octavia estate, in green and super frugal Greenline III Business trim. It’s not hard to see why. The Octavia estate has an impressive 610-litre boot, has carbon emissions of just 85g/km and is very good value.

Ford Fiesta ECOnetic Ford’s Fiesta ECOnetic comes next, also with carbon emissions of just 85g/km for the 1.6 TDCi engined model. So there’s all the appeal of the UK’s best seller all delivered with a low emission, low tax engine.

We’re not just advising our clients to take up the option of low carbon-emitting cars that capitalise on savings in tax, National Insurance and fuel costs – we’ve followed our own advice and done it ourselves.

We’ve added two zero-emission Nissan Leafs to our own fleet for testing and review purposes, which can be hooked up to recharge at our free-to-use electric vehicle charging points in the visitor car park at our Glasgow Skypark base.

It’s one thing to be seen to be green; but to make it really work you have to go green.

Now where did I leave my Kermit costume?