VW Group says it met EU CO2 goal for 2021 on higher EV sales

Volkswagen Group said it has met its European CO2 emissions legal target for 2021, helped by its EV push.

The group, which includes the VW, Audi, Porsche, Skoda and Seat brands, achieved average CO2 emissions of 118.5 grams per km in 2021 for its new passenger car fleet in the EU, the automaker said in a statement on Monday.

The figure was about 2 percent below the legal target set for VW Group by the EU as part of its goals to tackle climate change. The total does not include CO2 emissions from Bentley and Lamborghini, which are not part of the group's target because of their low volumes.

VW said the emissions figure is based on preliminary figures and final confirmation by the EU Commission is expected at a later date.

Group sales of electrified vehicles, including full-electric cars and hybrids, rose 64 percent to 472,300 in Europe last year, the automaker said.

Sales of full-electric cars such as the VW ID3 and ID4, Cupra Born, Audi Q4 e-tron and Porsche Taycan, helped the group to meet the CO2 target.

The proportion of battery-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids sold by the group rose to 17 percent of total deliveries last year from 10 percent in 2020.

"Our group-wide electric offensive picked up significant speed last year... this helped us to further reduce CO2 fleet emissions and fulfil the EU target," Christian Dahlheim, head of group sales, said in the statement.

VW, Audi, Skoda overachieve

In a separate release, VW brand said its average CO2 emissions were 113 g/km last year, below its EU target of 119 g/km.

Audi said it had overachieved its target with a value of 122 g/km, below its legally required target value of 129 g/km.

Skoda said average emissions of the new models it delivered in 2021 was 114.8 g/km – 3 g below its EU limit.

BMW and Daimler have said that preliminary figures showed they had also met European emissions targets, but neither has yet released specific figures.

Reuters contributed to this report