Gas-guzzling SUVs or sports cars as well as people carriers could be “priced off the road within five years”, according to the Daily Telegraph after a crackdown on carbon emissions to be announced by the European Commission.

The average new car in 2012 will have to emit no more than 120 grams of carbon per kilometre under proposals to be announced by Stavros Dimas, the European Environment Commissioner.

The rule change could add more than £3,300 to the cost of a vehicle. He said yesterday that they were needed because of the failure of European car makers to keep to a voluntary agreement signed in 1998 to reduce emissions by 25 per cent by 2008. They have managed 13 per cent and the agreement ends next year.

Car manufacturers said the proposals, which apply only to new cars, would prove devastating for stand-alone sports car builders, such as Porsche, and specialist manufacturers such as Land Rover.

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