9:05 am, September 10, 2024
Carmakers could be slapped with billions of fines for missing strict 2025 emissions targets due to falling demand for EVs, Renault’s chief has said.
Europe’s car industry could be hit with fines totalling €15bn (£12.6bn) for failing to hit an EU CO2 cap on average emissions of new car sales, according to Automotive News Europe.
In 2025 the current average figure of 116g/km will be cut to 94 g/km, but Renault CEO Luca de Meo has warned that carmakers will likely miss that target due to falling sales of new electric vehicles.
Speaking on France Inter radio on Friday (Sept 7), de Meo said: ‘If electric vehicles remain at today’s level, the European industry may have to pay €15bn in fines or give up the production of more than 2.5 million vehicles.
‘The speed of the electric ramp-up is half of what we would need to achieve the objectives that would allow us not to pay fines.’
His words carry extra weight as de Meo is also the prescient of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA).
The fines could rack up quickly as carmakers will be slapped with a €95 charge per excess gram of CO2 per km, and multiplied by the number of vehicles sold.
‘Everyone is talking about 2035, in 10 years, but we should be talking about 2025 because we are already struggling,” he said. The EU has set that as a deadline to sell only zero-emissions cars.
‘We need to be given a little flexibility. Setting deadlines and fines without being able to make that more flexible is very, very dangerous,’ de Meo said.
According to Automotive News Europe, a report published by analysts Dataforce said that Ford and Volkswagen were the furthest away from hitting the 2025 emissions target, while Toyota, thanks to its range of hybrid models, is the closest.
De Meo’s words come as latest figures from the ACEA show that electric car sales in Europe in July fell by 10.8%. Market share for EVs also fell to 12.1% compared with 13.5% for the same month last year.
Germany recorded a massive 36.8% fall in registrations, with a reduction in government incentives believed to be a key reason for the decline.
Last week, Volvo said it had abandoned its goal of selling only pure-electric cars due to changing market conditions.
