CAR manufacturers exhibiting at Fleet Show 2000 have been slammed 'a disgrace' for not displaying carbon dioxide emissions figures on their show vehicles. Out of 21 car firms at the NEC event just 10 included CO2 performance in specification lists on or next to models seen by more than 7,000 fleet decision-makers during the show's three days - just three weeks after Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown's Budget confirmed CO2-based vehicle excise duty and benefit-in-kind taxation regimes.

And of those 10, two rushed out CO2 information half way through the second day, one manufacturer showed the data for only one of the cars on its stand, and only two were using official Department of the Environment, Transport and Regions and Society of Motor Manufacturers 'green label' guides. Stewart Whyte, director of the Association of Car Fleet Operators and who came under attack from the SMMT after the Budget for saying car makers were failing to help fleets prepare for CO2-based company car tax, said: 'It's an absolute disgrace.

'We've been calling for CO2 data from manufacturers for two years, we've known for 14 months about proposed CO2-based tax bands and it's barely three weeks since the Budget yet just a handful of manufacturers feel the issue is sufficiently important to show the data at an event attended by people whose lives are being driven by CO2.'

Subaru and Isuzu, which shared a Fleet Show 2000 stand, were the only two marques displaying standardised environmental 'green labels' recommended by the SMMT and DETR for use in car showrooms and available since December. The A4 cards detail make and model, engine capacity, fuel type, transmission, EU fuel consumption in litres and miles per gallon over urban, extra-urban and combined cycles, CO2 emissions in g/km, Euro regulation emissions standard, and noise level in dB(A).

An SMMT spokesman said: 'The environmental labelling scheme was launched in October in preparation for when labelling becomes a legal requirement. That's a long way off but we like to keep ahead of the game. The scheme is voluntary but most manufacturers have now got the labels.'

Those who were showing greenhouse gas data with general model specification and technical information were Alfa Romeo (day two), Fiat (day two), Isuzu (plus green label), Jaguar, Mazda, Peugeot (only on 607), Renault, Subaru (plus green label), Volkswagen and Volvo. Manufacturers who did not include CO2 data were Audi, Chrysler, Daewoo, Honda, Iveco Ford Trucks, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Saab and Skoda.