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