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A new report by the loop agency shows the UK’s entire classic car fleet emits just 0.22% of total transport carbon dioxide emissions.

The report likens this to drinking three lattes a day or taking a return flight from London to New York as the average classic car in the UK produces a total of 614.6kg of CO2 per annum.

Using data from the DVLA and Department for Transport, the report calculated the average annual emissions of classic cars in the UK. The report also looks at how fuel efficiency and car use have changed over time.

Alex Kefford, author of the loop report, said: ‘Assigning a figure to the carbon footprint of the UK’s classic cars has long been a challenge. By taking a data-first approach that included developing our own software, delving into decades of dusty archives, and crunching our way through millions of datapoints, we’ve been able to shed some light on this particularly tricky topic.

‘Along the way, we’ve discovered that the humble MGB is the most popular classic with Brits, that there are more classic Ford Escorts and Volkswagen Golfs declared as SORN as there are registered on our roads, and that average passenger car fuel economy has doubled since 1956.’