Grosvenor Leasing has claimed it has reduced the CO2 emissions of its vehicle fleet by a quarter in the last eight years.
Vehicles on the company’s books now average 108g/km of CO2 – quite a way ahead of the overall new-car CO2 average of 120g/km recorded last year.
In 2009, new cars emitted 149.5g/km of CO2 on average, and since then, manufacturers have invested heavily in new fuel-saving technologies. These include hybrids, plug-in hybrids and full EV technologies, as well as making petrols and diesels much cleaner.
The news of the fleet’s reduction follows on from the company launching a service to help and advise fleets on how to move to zero or ultra-low emission vehicles.
Called 0Zone, the service offers advice on how to develop low-emission vehicle policies and assist with sourcing demonstration vehicles.
According to the firm’s CEO, Shaun Barritt, the move towards electric vehicles is inevitable, adding that fleets need to be proactive and start planning now for the changing landscape.
“The pace at which all fleets will shift towards ultra-low emission and electric vehicles is going to quicken dramatically in the coming years, which is why its important to start making plans now,” said Mark Gallagher, Grosvenor Leasing’s green fleet specialist. “The vehicle manufacturers have a target by 2021, which is only four years away, to be achieving 95g/km for the cars that they produce and this is being phased in from 2020.”
Eight years ago, just 14,963 ‘other’ – ie, not powered by petrol or diesel – cars were registered, compared with 88,919 alternatively-fuelled cars in 2016, with industry experts predicting that the figure is set to rise further in 2017 as negative publicity surrounding the use of diesel vehicles pushes some people towards other options.
