The Fiat 500 and Fiat 500C have both placed first in the list of petrol-driven models with the lowest carbon dioxide emissions to be found in the Guide to Fuel Savings produced by the Ministries for the Environment, for Infrastructure and Transport and for Economic Development.

With just 90 g/km of CO2, the iconic Fiat car competes with hybrid cars that dominate the ranking in terms of emissions and consumption, demonstrating the effectiveness of the TwinAir engine.

Fiat was also confirmed for the sixth year running as having the lowest level of CO2 emissions among Europe’s best-selling automotive brands in 2012, according to the ranking of JATO Dynamics.

In the last six years, Fiat has reduced its average emissions by 13 per cent to 119.8 g/km of CO2, far surpassing the average EU target for 2015 of 130 g/km.

In Italy, 42.1 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions comes from transport – two-thirds of which is generated by the road transport of passengers. Thanks to increasingly eco-friendly vehicles, the weighted average of CO2 emissions from cars registered in Italy, according to data from the European Environment Agency, has decreased in the last three years, down to 126.2 g/km in 2012, below the average level for the European Union.