When purchasing a new car, you usually take into consideration safety features, reliability, price, warranty and other factors.  Buyers can also factor in fuel efficiency and the environmental impact of their purchase with the help of the Fuel Consumption Label.

Introduced in 2003, the Fuel Consumption Labelling scheme requires all new vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes gross vehicle mass to have a fuel consumption label fixed to the windscreen.  The information on the label includes the vehicle's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions as well as fuel consumption.

There are three different figures on the left side of the label for fuel consumption

COMBINED:          Urban and Extra Urban driving
URBAN:                 City Driving
EXTRA URBAN:    Includes suburban and freeway driving

The figures indicate litres of fuel consumed per 100 km.  As an indication, the i30 SLX CRDi which won the Green Car of the Year 2008, consumes 4.7 litres and the High performance V8 HSV Clubsport GTS consumes 15.1 Litres.  If you are after a "greener" vehicle you would be looking at cars consuming under 7.0 litres combined.

The right side of the label shows how many grams of carbon dioxide the vehicle emits per kilometre.  A good figure for the Green Car buyer would be under 150Grams/km.

The labels are to be used as a general guide only.  Other factors such as how the car is driven, traffic conditions and maintenance can alter the results.