Volkswagen aims to meet EU emissions rules without Chinese help
Carmaker will no longer rely on electric vehicle sales from Geely and SAIC
Volkswagen plans to meet European emissions standards this year without relying on electric car sales by other companies, the first time the world’s largest carmaker has complied with carbon rules in its home region using its own vehicles.
Since 2020 carmakers in the EU have been bound to keep their average fleet emissions to 95g of CO₂ per kilometre driven or face significant fines. Laggards are, however, allowed to pay cleaner rivals to “pool” with them, creating artificially lower averages.
Delays to its planned electric car rollout saw VW include China’s Geely, NIO and SAIC, which owns the MG brand, in its “pool” for 2021.
But this year it has removed the Chinese companies, relying on its own brands which include Audi, Porsche, Škoda and Seat, according to public documents filed with the European Commission.
“This shows their confidence in meeting EU CO₂ compliance without the need of other parties — the fact that they don’t need the Chinese insurance policy shows CO₂ bullishness,” said Matthias Schmidt, a Berlin-based automotive analyst.
VW said: “We confirm that we have switched to a closed pool and that we are confident of reaching EU emission targets on our own.”
Previous years also saw Fiat Chrysler team up with Tesla to pass the standards, although FCA later pulled out of the arrangement. So far in 2022, Honda and Tesla have reached a pooling deal.
The penalty for missing the target is €95 for each gramme per kilometre above the limit, multiplied by the number of newly registered vehicles in a year.
VW had to pay more than €100mn in fines last year after it narrowly missed the targets, despite its pool arrangement and the launch of its first mass-market electric vehicle, ID.3.
Domestic rivals Mercedes-Benz and BMW last year met the rules, thanks to a late surge in demand for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which count towards the targets.
Electric car sales have risen across Europe, driven by a wave of new models from manufacturers and government subsidies that encourage consumers to buy them. Around 1.45mn new battery electric cars have been registered in Western Europe this year, around 14 per cent of the total expected car sales for the year.
Some markets, such as Norway, have a significantly higher share, driven by government incentives.