AUTOSHOW-Renault sees growth opportunity in CO2 rules

BRUSSELS Jan 15 (Reuters) - Stricter European legislation on the environment offers a growth opportunity for Renault, which has made a good start in cutting CO2 emissions from the cars it produces, an official at the French group said.

"The environment has become a real opportunity for Renault in the long run," as customers become increasingly sensitive to environmental issues, Alice de Brauer, the head of Renault's (RENA.PA) environment plan, told Reuters on Tuesday.

Renault is well on track to meet a European Union goal to reduce average car emissions to less than 140 grams per kilometre by 2009, from 160 g/km currently, she said.

The manufacturer sold more than 800,000 cars meeting these criteria in 2007, up from 780,000 units in 2006, and was well placed to meet the company's target to sell a million such cars in 2009, she added.

"We have transformed 148 car models, meaning we have reworked the mass, the aerodynamics, the friction ... We have chased extra grams," she said. "Everyone understood there was no magic formula, and that it's a combination of things that will allow us to cut grams."

Last month, the European Commission unveiled a plan to cut cars' carbon dioxide emissions by proposing fines from 2012 on cars that pollute more than 130 g/km on a rising scale to 2016. (Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten, editing by Will Waterman)