Brussels, Belgium (Online): The European Union said luxury automakers Ferrari and Aston Martin would receive a fine for exceeding their carbon emission objectives, as French cars lead the way in deteriorating emissions.
The European Environment Agency (EEA) said in a report that 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 agency said, "Two manufacturers, Aston Martin Lagonda and Ferrari, exceeded their specific emission targets and therefore are required to pay excess emission premiums."
Ferrari was likely to pay a fine of around 411,000 Euros (around $428,000) while Aston Martin was likely to pay around 33,000 Euros Based on data provided by the agency. 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.
The number stood at 168.3 g/km for light commercial vehicles sold in 2015 below the 2017 target of 175 g/km and down 0.4 percent from 2014.
According to the EEA, cars with lower carbon emissions were bought in Western EU member states compared to the Eastern members of the bloc last year.
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.