Slow EV sales to bring European carmakers heavy fines

Vehicle makers in Europe could face fines of 15 billion euros ($17.4 billion) for carbon emissions as they are selling too few electric vehicles, Renault CEO Luca de Meo said on Saturday.

Luca, who is also president of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, made the remarks in an interview with France Inter radio.

The EU's CO2 targets in 2025 are tough as the cap on average emissions from new vehicles sales has come down to 94 grams/km from 116 g/km in 2024.

Exceeding CO2 limits can lead to fines amounting to 95 euros per excess CO2 g/km multiplied by the number of vehicles sold. That could result in penalties of hundreds of millions of euros for large carmakers.

"If electric vehicles remain at today's level, the European industry may have to pay 15 billion euros in fines or give up the production of more than 2.5 million vehicles," said de Meo.

"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," he said.

He also urges the sector and authorities to be pragmatic and flexible. "Everyone is talking about 2035, in 10 years, but we should be talking about 2025 because we are already struggling".

"We need to be given a little flexibility. Setting deadlines and fines without being able to make that more flexible is very, very dangerous," said de Meo.