So said the European Environment Agency (EEA) in a recent report that also showed a number of manufacturers will also be subjected to fines adding up to €10bn if they don’t become more CO2-efficient to meet 2012 targets.

The EEA said that Daimler, Skoda, General Motors-Daewoo, Nissan, Mazda and Dacia need to reduce the average emissions of their fleets by more than 14g/km over the next five years.

However, it added that Toyota Motor Europe is already compliant with its 2012 target, and also less than 1g CO2/km from the more stringent 2015 target. Peugeot and Citroen are also both close to reaching their 2015 target already and only need to cut their emissions by less than 5g CO2/km to meet the target.

This figure corresponds to the average reduction of emissions from new passenger cars between 2009 and 2010 in Europe.