THE CARBON ECONOMY

If you're perusing the lists of company cars available to you, the old faithfuls of speed, equipment and residual values have now been replaced by one criterion - carbon dioxide emissions. The difference between the best and worst cars in each class is still huge and should you need a few pointers as to where you can make the biggest savings, we've done the legwork so you don't have to.

Citycar: smart fortwo CDI - 86g/km



In the current climate, a headline-grabbing fuel economy figure can do wonders for a car's profile and sales. The fortwo cdi certainly has one. It takes a notoriously long time for a diesel city car doing a low annual mileage to justify in fuel savings the higher purchase price it commands over a petrol model. That said, 85.6mpg combined economy with 89g/km emissions will endow the fortwo cdi with a powerful appeal for anyone keen to do their bit for the planet, dip under the cut off point for congestion charging schemes or benefit from the convenience of a car capable of going from Dover to Prague on a single tank of fuel. Quite simply, this is one of the greenest cars on the road.



Supermini: Skoda Fabia Greenline 1.2 TDI - 89g/km





The Fabia GreenLine features an economy figure of nearly 83mpg on the combined cycle which, if you're into comparisons, is good enough to put the car on a par with the most efficient models on the market. Where the GreenLine also scores is in its carbon dioxide emissions. It's rated at 89g/km which makes it extremely tax-efficient for private b...