Volkswagen faces a fine of over EUR100m (US$121m) for missing EU targets on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from its 2020 passenger car fleet, it said on Thursday.
That, however, contrasted with a statement from the automaker saying its Volkswagen Passenger Cars “significantly exceeds European CO2 fleet targets for 2020”.
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VW said in the statement average CO2 emissions for the passenger car fleet of new vehicles in Europe was around 6m grams below the legal target – a year on year decrease of 22% from 2019. The passenger car fleet of new vehicles in the European Union achieved average CO2 emissions of 92g/km – the legal CO2 target for the VW Passenger Cars brand was 97g/km. As a result, CO2 emissions fell by 22 percent compared to the previous year.
However, VW told Reuters it cut average CO2 emissions in the fleet in the European Union by around 20% to 99.8g/km but that was around 0.5g/km above its target. That implied EU fines amounting to a “very low triple-digit million amount”, a spokesman told the news agency.
Reuters noted European policymakers had clamped down on exhaust emissions, forcing carmakers to boost development of low-emission technology or face a penalty of EUR95 per gram of excess CO2 they emit.
“We narrowly missed the fleet target for 2020, thwarted by the COVID-19 pandemic,” CEO Herbert Diess said in a statement cited by Reuters, adding he hoped to meet the target this year as the company’s main brands bring out new electric models.
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By GlobalDataReuters noted VW had said the EU’s more stringent emissions targets would force it to boost the proportion of hybrid and electric vehicles in its European car sales to 60% by 2030, up from a previous target of 40%.
EU Commission final confirmation of fleet targets will follow later, VW said.
