The average car doesn't need its engine for up to 30 per cent of urban driving, when it is sitting at traffic lights, stuck in traffic jams or waiting at the roadside, but it still uses petrol and produces noise and pollution while stationary.

Later this year Citroën will launch the obvious solution: Turn the engine off when it's not required and start it again automatically the moment the accelerator is touched. This revolutionary technology will make its debut in the Citroën C3 at the Paris Motor Show in September, the first time a Stop and Start system has been available in a petrol-engined car.

The system has proved in tests to cut fuel consumption by 10 per cent in the city and even reduce fuel consumption on the open road by six per cent. Emissions of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas, are also cut by the same amount.

"This system has been developed in one of the toughest urban driving environments in the world: Paris," says Miles Williams, General Manager of Citroën in Australia. "While we may not have the traffic issues and demands of Paris, or Europe, we do have urban environments where localised pollution is a serious issue and where the Citroën C3 Stop and Start could make a significant contribution to a cleaner environment. We will be examining this car for Australia very closely!"