The Cygnet, a retrimmed and rebadged Toyota iQ of Aston Martin, will have a vital role as the car manufacturer tries to meet the stricter regulations on emissions.

The EU has come up with the standards for the allowable carbon dioxide average of vehicle fleets of carmakers. The Aston Martin Cygnet will allow the company to survive in their key European markets without having to alter the engineering of their range of sports cars nor do they have to go for a V8 instead of their V12s.

The Cygnet powered by a 1.3L 96 bhp engine will cut the CO2 emissions average of Aston Martin into half with an average of around 115g/km.

The European Union’s rule will take effect by 2012 and will have different stages spread into four years. Come 2012, 65% of a carmaker’s fleet must meet the set standards while moving forward to 100% by 2015.

Small-volume manufacturers like Bentley and Aston Martin which only has between 1,000 units to 10,000 units rolling out of their factories every year can go for two options. They can compute the CO2 emission average with the production of the bigger group which they belong to or like Aston Martin, which is not part of a bigger group, can stand alone.

EU will allow Aston to have a lower target than the set 130 g/km. The car manufacturer needs to negotiate with the EU. With the current aim of selling around 1500 Cygnets every year, Aston Martin might actually meet the goals but if the car industry rebounds increasing the number of sales to around 3,000 units, this will push them to do something about their other models.

Dale Vince and his team, commissioned by Ecotricity, have this vision of empowering all vehicles in Britain by wind. Vince admitted that he is a speed aficionado and loves new and innovative technology, but he is deeply concerned with the state of the planet. He wished that all 30m cars in Britain to be driven by wind through a supplemented power of 3,000-10,000 turbines feeding electricity at its peak. According to him, this concept will save 25m tons of vehicle oil, and the total of 12% of all United Kingdom’s carbon emissions.

Vince sits at the pedestal of Ecotricity, the seventh largest supplier of electricity in United Kingdom and is one of the most renowned and biggest construction firms of wind turbines in his country. With his superb achievements, he finally conceptualized wind-powered cars. He predicted that these cars will be seen glazing on the road within 20 years. These cars will be actually running by electricity that is created by wind-farms.

Aside from being an eco-activist, Vince is also a car aficionado. His firm is conceptualizing a prototype model of an electric sportscar. He is planning to create a 0-60 miles per hour vehicle faster than Ferrari models. He believes on driving with fun while saving the planet. He also revealed that they conceptualized and engineered this revving vehicle for six months.

In France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, the average emission of CO2 for all new cars in all categories (SUVs included) is 3.26 tons/year (since the beginning of 2008) based on 12,000 miles/year. While in Japan, the average emission of CO2 is 3.10 tons/year. In the U.S., the average CO2 emission for new cars is a surprising 5.77 tons/year.

When it comes to consumption of fuel, the study found that cars, minivans, and SUVs in the U.S. market consume 10.6 lt/100 km. While European cars consume 5.83 lt/ 100km and Japanese cars consume only 5.79 lt/100km. I suppose American drivers should counter this by reading up on some fuel efficiency tips.

Note that the European CO2 results are affected by the big proportion of compact cars and diesel engines, and the Japanese CO2 average is affected by the large proportion of minicars. While SUVs make up 30% of the total U.S. new car market.

Another factor is the strict CO2-based taxation enforced throughout Europe, which hasn’t been adapted in the U.S. Also, the higher gas prices in Europe also affect the results of the study.

If the U.S. will enforce the fuel-consumption-based taxation on new vehicles and if the gas prices will rise to the same levels as those in Europe, then American will be forced to buy compact-sized cars which emit less CO2 and consumes less gas.

Clearly, being eco-friendly has become more of a necessity nowadays because it not only affects the consumers’ financial stability but also the environment.