Fords Worst for Green House Gas in Europe, Study Claims

Paul Myles

TU-Editor

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26th April 2021

Ford has been named and shamed as Europe’s highest mass market producer of green houses gases per car sold in the market last year.

That’s the claim of a study by BEV lobbyists from Uswitch who claim the brand’s CO2 emissions totaled 30,160 kg per km of CO2 was emitted from 236,072 new cars and average emissions of 0.13kg/km per car. According to the average UK motorist’s annual mileage, that also works out at 1,502kg of CO2 a year per car. It’s worth pointing out that the study is confined to tailpipe emissions and does not allude to the total vehicle’s emissions in terms of production or even the 60% average emissions from tire and brake pad wear.

In second place was Volkswagen with an average annual emissions per car came at 1,142kg with the total of all new registrations at 24,549kg per km. While affected by a higher mix of heavyweight luxury vehicles among it offering, Mercedes is listed in third with each car emitting 1,476kg of CO2 but with emissions averaging 0.12 kg/km per car and a total of 24,265 kg/km.

Of course, the more luxury high-end manufacturers dominate the individual new car emissions rankings with Bugatti topping the league emitting 6,145kg of CO2 a year per car and Rolls Royce in second with 4,127kg of CO2 a year per car. What’s perhaps most surprisingly considering the ‘premium’ brands is Chevrolet at fifth worst performer with 3,208kg of CO2 a year per car. Here there could be a clear link with the size and variety of SUVs the US brand has on offer.

Less surprising, perhaps, is that brands marketing smaller vehicles are among the best climate protectors with Mini scoring as low as 1,254kg of CO2 a year per car.

— Paul Myles is a seasoned automotive journalist based in Europe. Follow him on Twitter @Paulmyles_