Hundreds of thousands of car buyers have switched to purchasing cars with lower carbon dioxide emissions.

By comparing road tax bands, figures from the SMMT show 60.7% of new cars sold last year fell within the cleanest bands A-D (under 165g/km) compared with 43.1% in 2000.

'There has been a noticeable shift in the new car market,” said SMMT chief executive Christopher Macgowan.

“This is partly due to concerns about motoring costs and partly because reducing their climate change impact is important to more buyers. However, we should not underplay significant fuel economy and CO2 savings from technological advances in new models, including premium brands,” he said.

Today's figures were revealed as a preview of the SMMT's annual new car CO2 report. The launch is planned for early July at the SMMT headquarters, Forbes House in London.

New car registrations by VED band 2000 v 2006

VED band		CO2 g/km		2000 new cars		Market share %		2006 new cars		Market share %
A		<100 g		80		0		298		0
B		101-120		3,519		0.1%		109,926		4.7
C		121-150		421,158		19.2%		747,094		31.9
D		151-165		500,494		23.8%		567,007		24.2
E		166-185		511,220		22.7%		398,055		17.0
F		186-225		533,759		24.0%		346,343		14.8
G		226+		250,689		11.3%		176,141		7.5