Volvo is trying to do for the environment what it has been doing for safety for the past 80 years.

It is well-known for its commitment to cutting road deaths by investing in vehicle safety.

Volvo invented the three-point seatbelt for example, which has saved an estimated one million lives.

But now it wants to lead the charge towards greener motoring with ambitious goals for its DRIVe range.

Our new long-term V50 1.6D SE DRIVe emits just 118g/km of CO2 to ualify for the ultra-low 13% company car tax band, which would be unheard of even a couple of years go.

It also has a combined fuel economy figure of 62.8mpg – although in its first few hundred miles I am achieving more like 50mpg, but the engine is still bedding in.

But such is the pace of change that a Volvo buyer can now wipe the floor of this green offering as there is now a V50 Drive with Stop/Start technology, which slashes emissions to 104g/km and improves fuel consumption to 72.4mpg.

And encouragingly, both the standard DRIVe and the stop/start version are priced as the lowest cost diesel at each specification point apart from the R-Design model.

There are no obvious signs this is a ‘green car’ apart from some modest badging on the rump and sides.

However, on the road there is a reminder to adapt your driving style with a gearshift indicator, which tells you the optimum time to change up or down for maximum efficiency.

On the road, it is incredibly quiet and soaks up even the roughest roads perfectly.

Overall it’s an great effort and should get attention on fleet lists, particularly as Volvo saw about two-thirds of its sales go into fleets from its annual sales of 33,341 last year.