Will 175g/km become tax benchmark?

All the signs from the Government and the EU suggest vans will follow cars by being taxed on emissions, but where will the limits be set?

Two average CO2 targets are already being bandied about by EU think tanks. The first is 175g/km by 2012, the second 160g/km by 2015.

While most LCV makers don’t publish CO2 or even mpg data, all have figures for internal purposes. For example, Ford told BusinessCar its best-selling Transit – the short-wheelbase 85PS 2.2 TDCi 280 – has an official CO2 figure of 210-220g/km for example, suggesting the future averages proposed might not be so hard to reach.

Published figures would be useful in helping to define a ‘low carbon van’ to allow the Government to allocate cash from its recently announced circa £50m low carbon fund for lower emission LCVs.