The chief executive of Daimler AG on Monday said at the North American International Auto Show that his company cannot currently guarantee it can meet tougher European carbon dioxide emissions standards taking effect in several years.
Dieter Zetsche, CEO of the maker of Mercedes-Benz luxury vehicles, told reporters he “can’t guarantee” to meet tightening emission standards in 2021.
“It’s a huge challenge for everyone,” he told reporters later in an interview. “We will make it. That’s our intention, but I can’t guarantee it.”
Photo: Bloomberg
A regulation adopted in 2014 requires vehicle manufacturers selling vehicles in the EU to reach, with some exceptions, a level of 95g of carbon dioxide emitted per kilometer by early 2021, compared with 130g in 2015.
Manufacturers that fail are to be fined 95 euros (US$116.42) per car and gram of excess carbon dioxide. This could potentially lead to fines in the tens or hundreds of millions of euros.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV CEO Sergio Marchionne said he understood Daimler’s predicament, adding that his company was also looking at how to meet the tougher standards — with noncompliance not an option.
“We’ve gone through this. It ain’t pretty,” he said, regarding the cost of fines. “Having said this, we have no intention of pulling vehicles, because we think we can meet the standards.”
German manufacturers, whose large engines emit more carbon dioxide than smaller models, are struggling to achieve the goals, experts have said.
So far, they have relied on diesel to reduce emissions. However, diesel engine cars have fallen out of favor with consumers and sales have dropped, exacerbated by the Volkswagen AG diesel emissions cheating scandal.
“It’s dragged all of us into the very uncomfortable state where we are now on the defensive continuously about the utilization of diesel in the market,” Marchionne said.
To help comply with the new standards, manufacturers are developing a range of electric vehicles, with no certainty about the real-world demand from consumers.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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