The German car group Volkswagen is facing a fine of more than 100 million euros (2.6 billion CZK) for failing to meet the European Union’s targets for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions last year in its car fleet. The carmaker has reduced its EU fleet emissions by about 20 percent to 99.8 grams per kilometer (g / km). However, it is still 0.5 g / km above the target, the carmaker announced.
“We have just missed the 2020 fleet target, thwarted by the covid-19 pandemic,” said CEO Herbert Diess. But it hopes that the carmaker will meet the target this year because its leading brands are coming up with new electric models. Last year, the limit was met by the Volkswagen brand and the luxury brand Audi. According to a spokesman for the carmaker, failure to meet the target corresponds to a fine of more than 100 million euros.
European politicians have pushed for restrictions on exhaust emissions. Therefore, the carmakers have embarked on the development of low-emission technologies because if they do not meet the limits, they risk a fine of 95 euros for every gram of CO2 above the limit for each car sold.
Volkswagen reduces the range of cars with internal combustion engines and converts more factories to produce electric vehicles. He has previously said that stricter emissions targets in the Union will force him to increase the share of hybrid and electric car sales in Europe to 60 percent from the previous mark of 40 percent by 2030.
Volkswagen said that electric cars’ deliveries to the EU, Britain, Norway, and Iceland more than quadrupled to 315,400 last year. Making it number one in the electric car market in Western Europe with about a quarter of the market.
Daimler and BMW have already announced that they have managed to meet CO2 limits thanks to higher sales of electric cars.
In 2015, Volkswagen admitted that it had cheated with emission tests on diesel cars. The automaker’s scandal has resulted in fines and car repairs of more than 30 billion euros. She paid for the majority in the United States, Reuters reported.