French cars lead EU list of low CO2 emitters, Ferrari fined

 The European Union on Friday said luxury carmakers Ferrari and Aston Martin would receive a fine for exceeding their carbon emission targets, as French cars lead the way in lowering emissions. 

French car manufacturers Peugeot, Citroen and Renault ranked first, second and third on an annual list of large car manufacturers with the lowest carbon emissions, the European Environment Agency (EEA) said in a report.

"Two manufacturers, Aston Martin Lagonda and Ferrari, exceeded their specific emission targets and therefore are required to pay excess emission premiums," the agency said.

Based on data provided by the agency, Ferrari was likely to pay pay a fine of around 411,000 euros (around $428,000) while Aston Martin was likely to pay around 33,000 euros. The final amount is calculated by the European Commission.

On average, new cars sold in the bloc had carbon emissions that were eight percent below the 2015 target of 130 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre (g/km) and 3.1 percent lower than in 2014.

For light commercial vehicles sold in 2015, the number stood at 168.3 g/km, below the 2017 target of 175 g/km and down 0.4 percent from 2014.

Last year, cars with lower carbon emissions were bought in Western EU member states compared to the Eastern members of the bloc last year, according to the EEA.

On average, the most efficient new cars were bought in the Netherlands, followed by Portugal, Denmark and Greece in second place, while Portugal followed by Cyprus bought the most effective new vans, the report found.

Conventional diesel and petrol cars accounted for 97.2 percent of new registrations, as the proportion of plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles rose to one percent from 0.8 percent in 2014.

The remaining 1.6 percent of new registrations covered vehicles running on other alternative fuels, such as liquefied petroleum gas and compressed natural gas.