Volkswagen’s big boss, Herbert Diess has just admitted that the VW Group was responsible for at least 1% of CO2 emissions worldwide. This is true only for cars.
However, if we were to add the emissions from trucks and busses from VW Group’s commercial vehicles brand MAN, Scania and Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus (in case you did not know this, MAN and Scania belong to VW), the figure climbs to 2% for 100 million vehicles in circulation according to Michael Jost, the chief strategist of the manufacturer.
He explained recently in and interview with the German newspaper Wirtschaftswoche. This corresponds roughly to emissions from all over Germany (2.1% according to the Global Carbon Project 2016), which relates to a figures of 800 million tonnes of CO2 per year.
Volkswagen, like all other manufacturers, will have to reduce its emissions, in particular to avoid fines from the European Union from 2020, which is set at €95 per gram above 95 g CO2/km, per car.
There will also be the stage of the Euro 7 standard, in 2023. But Michael Jost does not hide the fact that the technical solutions to achieve it will increase the price of cars from 2000 to 3000 €. In parallel, the manufacturer will strengthen its electrical offer.
VW Group is already working on having a total of 70 fully electric vehicles ready for sale, scheduled for global release by 2028. The group hopes to drastically reduce its emissions by selling at least 20 million electric vehicles. With the hope that by 2050 the VW Group will no longer be releasing any CO2 globally, even for the commercial vehicle van, trucks and busses.
