Driving a "green" car may do lots of things for you: promote your commendable environmental conscious amongst your friends and family, reduce your carbon footprint and even make you feel like a better person, but will it drive down the cost of your car insurance?

First things first, a "green" car is deemed to be one that does not guzzle vast quantities of fuel and gives out a relatively low quantity of carbon emissions. Such vehicles are likely to be small, economical machines, that are just as capable of getting you from A to B as a more expensive motor, albeit in a less-flashy manner.

However, despite the current trend towards going green one expert claims that in the world of car insurance your good intentions will go unrewarded.

The British Insurance Brokers' Association (Biba), which is the UK's leading general insurance organisation, has said this week that car insurers are more interested in other factors.

Graeme Trudgill, technical and corporate affairs executive at Biba, said: ""Eco-cars aren't necessarily cheap to repair and every car has a grouping between one and 50 so if you are worried about the price of insurance you should look at the grouping on the car and not how green it is."

"How green they are isn't a major factor," he concluded.

However, Mr Trudgill did add that a big car with a large engine will be more expensive to insure, whereas a Fiat 500 for example, would be cheaper, although he puts this down to the fact that the car is worth less.

According to figures released by the AA, the average car insurance premium has risen by around six per cent to £682 over the last year – making finding a good value policy even more important for consumers.

Chief executive officer of AA Insurance, Andrew Strong, said that insurers are being "squeezed" by increasing costs, in terms of legal expenses and personal injury claims, which is driving up the cost of premiums.

He explained that for every £100 the insurance industry takes in premiums it pays out £112 in claims, which could be a factor in insurers deciding not to reward those motorists who have gone green.

Mr Strong said: "If premiums don't continue to rise at a realistic rate, there will be a point when large premium increases become inevitable.

"That would be unhelpful for customers and would damage the reputation of the industry."

However, it seems that although insurers cannot afford to favour those who are taking the green initiative, motorists are still opting for the moral high road.

HyrbidCars reports that while the automobile industry as a whole experienced the worst month for car sales since 1995 in April 2008, hybrid sales climbed three per cent.

The "fuel-efficient gas-electric" vehicles have grown in popularity by 15 per cent since the start of 2008, in contrast to the general market which has decreased by eight per cent over the same period.

While hybrid car owners may not be cashing in on their insurance policies, they are benefiting from the fact that as fuel prices rocket their run arounds are leaving their wallets lined with cash.