Cleanest and dirtiest car brands in New Zealand revealed

The Government has dirty cars in its sights and newly-released industry figures show that some of the most expensive motor vehicle brands available in New Zealand produce the most pollution.

The carbon dioxide emissions of all car brands sold in New Zealand in 2018 have been revealed by the Motor Industry Association, with luxury marque Rolls-Royce topping the list with an average of 326 grams of CO2 per kilometre travelled.

That's more than double our cleanest fossil-fuelled brand, with cars from French manufacturer Citroen averaging 122g per km.

Brands that typically sell cars - or vans - with bigger engines rank further up the average emissions list.

Citroen C4 Cactus. Photo / Bay of Plenty Times

Flat at the bottom of the list, however, is US electric car maker Tesla whose cars all run solely on electricity and don't produce carbon emissions.

Other luxury brands are big emitters too, with McLaren, Bentley and Ferrari all averaging over 200g per km.

Lamborghini sits behind Rolls-Royce with 316g per km.

Lamborghini Aventador S. Photo / File

It should come as no surprise that most of the biggest emitters are brands noted for their big-engined sports cars and it's important to note that they make up a small fraction of our national fleet.

Amongst more popular brands, Holden and Ford both average over 200g per km while Suzuki (130g per km) and Honda (152g per km) join Citroen near the bottom of the table.

Highest CO2 emissions by brand in 2018 (g/km)

• Rolls-Royce (326.1g/km)
• Lamborghini (316.3)
• Chrysler (302.4)
• Ferrari (291.4)
• Bentley (265.5)

Lowest CO2 emissions by brand in 2018 (g/km)

• Citroen (122.9 g/km)
• Seat (130.2)
• Suzuki (130.8)
• Mini (131.9)
• Skoda (142.5)

Mini Cooper S Countryman. Photo / File