Three Chinese manufacturers join VW’s CO2 pool
With Nio, Xpeng and the Geely brand Lynk & Co, three more Chinese manufacturers have joined the Volkswagen Group’s open CO2 pool in the EU for 2021 and 2022 – despite Volkswagen’s assurances that it is compliant with the required fleet target values for 2021.
This is reported by Schmidt Automotive Research, citing EU documents and a statement from Volkswagen. The pool, established with SAIC in September 2020, has now grown to 16 members.
In addition to numerous group brands such as Audi, Skoda and Seat, the Chinese manufacturer MG Motor, among others, contributes its e-cars registered in the EU, Norway and Iceland. At the beginning of this year, the Chinese electric newcomer Aiways, the Geely brand London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) and the Aachen-based electric car manufacturer Next.e.Go joined the CO2 pool. At the time, this was done explicitly to reduce the CO2 fleet value of the pool with their electric cars.
With the Chinese trio now made public – Nio, Xpeng and Geely brand Lynk & Co – the number of Chinese manufacturers in the pool climbs to six. Their entry for 2021 and 2022 is not said to be related to an acute discrepancy with CO2 commitments this time. Schmidt Automotive Research reports, citing a statement from Wolfsburg, that they “remain confident of achieving EU+2 (Norway/Iceland) CO2 compliance in 2021 even without the new partners”.
Analyst Matthias Schmidt states that the reason for the new additions therefore remains unclear. But he points to the semiconductor shortage-related shutdown of assembly lines at VW’s Zwickau plant last month and speculates that the new trio in the pool “could be a kind of prophylactic Chinese insurance medicine”.
Both Nio and Xpeng BEVs have only recently become available in Europe – mainly in Norway. Lynk&Co has been gaining a foothold in Europe for a few months, with the Geely brand specialising mainly in internet connectivity and car-sharing. So the trend is towards increasing market shares of Chinese manufacturers in Europe. This can be seen above all in the success of SAIC’s MG brand.
Meanwhile, Schmidt Automotive Research writes that, also on the basis of EU documents, it became public at the beginning of this week that the Volkswagen Group had joined forces with Ford to meet the separate British CO2 requirements. The UK is imposing independent CO2 fleet targets for the first time this year, after the EU transition period ended at the turn of 2020/21.
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