CARMAKERS will be more than a decade late in meeting their target to produce less polluting vehicles because people are buying bigger, more powerful models, figures suggest.

Sales of small cars fell to their lowest level for seven years last year while large vehicles secured their highest share of the market yet. One in eight cars sold last year was a 4x4 or people carrier, compared with one in eighteen a decade ago.

Average emissions of carbon dioxide for new cars fell by 1.2 per cent last year, well short of the industry target of a 5 per cent decline. The fall was almost entirely due to the rise in popularity of diesel vehicles.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said that it was disappointed by the slow progress towards the European target of reducing average CO2 emissions for new cars to 140g/km by 2008. The British average last year was 169.4g/km and, on current trends, 140g/km will be reached only in 2021.

The SMMT said that drivers were partly to blame for demanding bigger cars with faster acceleration and more gadgets. It said that falling prices of new cars and rising incomes had encouraged millions of drivers to buy larger vehicles.

Features such as air-conditioning and electric windows, which add weight and consume energy, have become almost ubiquitous. Safety systems such as air bags and side-impact bars had added weight while rules on pedestrian-friendly bonnet design had made cars less aerodynamic, it said. The SMMT report on the emissions of new cars accused drivers of failing to reflect their concerns about global warming in their choice of car.

“Consumers say they support the environment, but act in a less sustainable way. Consumers must also take an increased responsibility for the vehicles they purchase and the journeys they make,” it said.

But Friends of the Earth said that carmakers were to blame for the poor progress on emissions because they spent more promoting gas guzzlers than low-emission cars. It analysed advertising in national newspapers last September and found more than half of advertisements were for cars in the two most polluting road tax bands. Only 3 per cent were for cars in the lowest two bands. The campaign group added that the top rate of road tax should increase from £215 to £600.

Sales of petrol-electric hybrids, such as the Toyota Prius, which produces only 104g/km, accounted for only 0.3 of the new car market.

Christopher Macgowan, the chief executive of the SMMT, said that the European Commission was planning a scheme under which drivers would be able to claim up to £400 towards the cost of a car with very low emissions. “It would be completely unacceptable if we missed the target by a decade,” he said.