Ikea, which switched its entire car fleet to Honda hybrids three years ago, is now looking for more fuel-efficient alternatives.
In June 2007, the home furnishings store said it was switching its entire 85-vehicle company car fleet to the hybrids.

At the time the cars – Honda Civic Hybrids – were among the cleanest on the market, with emissions of 109g/km.

The decision was driven by Ikea’s commitment to reduce CO2 emissions worldwide by 9% by 2010. It said its new company car policy was a “significant step” towards meeting this target.

The decision also made it the first private company in the UK at the time to move its entire company car fleet to Civic Hybrids.

However, in the following three years a number of less polluting cars have entered the market, many with emissions under 100g/km.

These include non-hybrid models such as the Audi A3, Volkswagen Golf Bluemotion and Seat Leon Ecomotive, all of which produce just 99g/km of CO2.

Although none of these are able to enter the London congestion charge zone for free like cars such as the Honda Civic and Insight and Toyota Prius.

An Ikea spokesman confirmed the company is now in the process of replacing its fleet and is concentrating its search on low-emission cars.

“Our commitment to invest in new technologies that support a reduction in C02 emissions is an integral part of our re-tender process," he said. "We have not made any decisions at this point in time.”