Average CO2 emissions of new vans in the European Union fell 2.7%, marking the highest annual reduction since 2013.

Average CO2 emissions of new vans in the European Union fell 2.7% in 2016.

The provisional figures from the European Environment Agency (EEA) show the average van registered in the EU in 2016 emitted 163.8g/km, which is 4.5g less than in 2015.

The reduction brings the EU average emissions 6.4% below the 2017 target of 175g/km – which was already met in 2013 – but further improvements are needed to reach the target of 147g/km for 2020.

The research also found that two out of three new vans (66%) registered in the EU were sold in just four Member States: the UK (22%), France (18%), Germany (15%) and Italy (11%).

Diesel vehicles continued to make up the vast majority of the new van fleet, constituting 96% of sales. Only 10,177 electric and plug-in hybrid vans were sold in 2016, representing 0.6 % of the total EU van sales – this compares to the total of 157,096 electric and plug-in hybrid passenger cars sold the same year, which made up 1.1% of total car sales.