MILAN – Automakers facing tougher European Union 2025 emissions rules are planning to buy carbon credits from electric vehicle companies including Tesla and Polestar to avoid hefty fines, an EU filing showed on Tuesday.
Companies with lower EV sales can “pool” their emissions with segment leaders, purchasing emissions credits from other manufacturers to lower their overall averages. The move could save them hundreds of millions of euros in penalties.
Stellantis, Toyota, Ford, Mazda and Subaru are planning to pool carbon emissions with U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla to comply with the EU’s 2025 rules, the EU filing showed.
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Another pool is forming around Germany’s Mercedes, with Polestar, Volvo Cars, and Smart, the same document showed.
Automakers such as Tesla and Polestar, whose sales are 100% fully electric, can sell their surplus carbon credits to other manufacturers pooling with them.
For Tesla, carbon credit sales accounted for almost 3% of its $72 billion total revenue in the first nine months of last year.
A spokesperson for Polestar told Reuters that Polestar, Volvo Cars and Smart will sell their surplus emission credits to Mercedes.
Sweden’s Volvo Cars, which is majority-owned by China’s Geely, declined in a statement to provide financial details of the pooling agreement it was entering.
It said it expected to have a ‘significant’ CO2 surplus this year and was on track to meet the 2025 EU CO2 emission target. “Our global tailpipe emissions per vehicle have reduced by over 40% since 2018,” it said.
In the January to September period of last year, carbon credit sales made up about 0.3% of Volvo Cars’ total revenue.
FINES LOOMING
According to Renault CEO Luca De Meo, who until December chaired European auto lobby ACEA, 2025 rules could cost European car producers some 15 billion euros ($15.6 billion).
The carmakers’ plans to pool carbon emissions come as ACEA is calling for relief on the EU 2025 rules. Some European governments, including Italy, have also called for a suspension of 2025 fines.
The two pools are open to other carmakers, the document said. Potential newcomers will have to apply by Feb. 5 to the Tesla-led pool and by Feb. 7 to the Mercedes-led one.
The deals are based on 2025 sales figures. The filing gave no breakdown on the volume of credits being bought by the companies involved.
Mercedes said in a statement it was entering a pool to “close the remaining gap and achieve the European CO2 emission targets for our new car fleet in 2025”.
“Market conditions and our customers will determine the pace of our industry’s transformation,” it said.
A spokesperson for Stellantis said on Tuesday the carmaker’s participation in the pool would help it meet its EU targets for 2025 “while optimising our resources”.
“At the same time, we continue to focus on developing the innovative electric and low-emission technologies that are at the heart of our strategy,” the spokesperson said.
Stellantis’ head of European operations, Jean-Philippe Imparato, last month said the automaker’s aim was to pay no EU fines this year.
Based on EU rules, Imparato said, the group’s EV sales in Europe would have to increase from 12% of the current total to 21%, with potential fines of 300 million euros for any missed percentage point.
A spokesperson for Volkswagen on Tuesday reiterated that Europe’s largest automaker saw 2025 EU emission targets as “particularly challenging”, but that it would consider other measures to comply with them, including joining a pool, only at a later stage.
Carmakers have to notify the EU Commission of pooling agreements by Dec. 31 of each year.
Brussels can request extra information, but it will not assess their commercial terms.
Pool participants must not share data or exchange information other than the average specific emissions of CO2, specific emissions target and total number of vehicles registered.
($1 = 0.9621 euros)
(Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari in Milan; additional reporting by Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels, Marie Mannes in Stockholm, Ilona Wissenbach in Frankfurt, Christina Amann in Berlin and Nick Carey in London; editing by Giulia Segreti, Jason Neely and Jan Harvey)
