Car brands with highest average fleet CO2 bear sales pain in August

The new car market fell 18.6 per cent last month, but for brands with fleets of the highest CO2-emitting cars the pain was even worse.

Figures exclusively revealed by cleangreencars.co.uk show that four brands with the highest CO2 profiles – Porsche, Land Rover, Jeep and Chrysler – saw sales slide by more than a half in August.

Jay Nagley, Clean Green Cars publisher, commented: “These are worrying times for manufacturers of sports cars, luxury brands and 4x4s.

“Dealers have taken a big hit in August and the pain can only continue in September. The reign of power and performance looks to be over. As recession looms large, the new kings will be small, low-emission models.

“Looking back over the last three months, new car sales fell by 10.7% from 476,789 to 425,835 units,” added Nagley. “Until now brands like Jaguar seemed to be riding the storm on the back of new products like the XF. However August figures suggest that even a fabulous new car like this can’t drag recession-wary customers to the showroom.”