The Volkswagen Group is staring down a €100 million ($121 million) fine courtesy of the European Union, for missing its passenger car CO2 targets in 2020.
The carmaker did manage to cut average CO2 emissions in the EU by roughly 20% to 99.8 g/km, unfortunately it was still not enough, falling short by 0.5 g/km of the intended target. VW expects this to result in a “very low triple-digit million amount,” as far as the fine, reports Reuters.
“We narrowly missed the fleet target for 2020, thwarted by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said CEO Herbert Diess in an official statement, while adding that he hopes to hit those targets in 2021, seen as how many all-new fully electric models will go on sale under the VW Group umbrella.
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The estimated fine would have probably been bigger had VW not taken part in a fleet pooling system (alongside SAIC and Ford). Such strategies have led to carmakers paying competitors who were under the CO2 limit, in order to join their ranks.
Meanwhile, rivals Daimler and BMW have both achieved their CO2 goals thanks in part to a rise in sales for their specific EVs.
Of course, it’s not all bad news for VW, as deliveries for their electric models more than quadrupled in 2020 to 315,400 units – making the VW Group the clear market leader for EVs in western Europe (cornering about a quarter of the market). Furthermore, it hasn’t been just VW and Audi that have gone electric within the group, but also Skoda and Cupra.
“Volkswagen continues to advance the transformation of the industry. In 2015, we kicked off the largest and most comprehensive electric offensive in the industry. By significantly exceeding our CO2 targets, we have shown that the brand is on the right track. In 2021, we will continue to accelerate the transformation towards electric mobility with new models,” said
