Jaguar Land Rover joins Tesla’s EU CO2 pool for 2021

Jaguar Land Rover intends to join Tesla’s manufacturer pool for CO2 emissions to avoid paying fines for missing its European Union targets.

According to latest exclusive Schmidt Automotive Research and European Commission data, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has joined the group, which also includes Honda, so it is able to combine its sales with other automakers in exchange for funds.

The European Union does allow for multiple manufacturers to group their fleets together and to be counted as a single entity. Therefore, as Tesla only produces electric vehicles, it offsets JLR’s overall emissions.

Confirmation of JLR’s decision to join the pool was confirmed hours after Land Rover had presented their new Range Rover to the world’s press at an event in London where they also revealed a pure electric version of the latest incarnation will arrive in 2024.

This is the first year UK only CO2 targets – largely carried over from the European system – will be enforced following the transition period which ended at the end of 2020.

Last year JLR failed to meet its EU CO2 obligation goal, attributing 35 million GBP to fines for this according to JLR.

The European Union CO2 targets require manufacturers to meet a strict criteria, which carries fines of €95 (£77) per vehicle per g/km.

The report from Schmidt Automotive Research and European Commission stated: “Despite almost all manufacturers being bullish on CO2 targets this year, it is noteworthy that Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) under the shadow of the semiconductor shortage have likely concluded that they are more willing to derail their CO2 compliance targets in order to help their underlying profits from their higher emitting profitable models than sacrifice these in order to meet their compliance targets.

“JLR which is classified as a niche manufacturer has a derogation target of just 131.8g/km rather than the fleet weight-based average 95g/km (NEDC) target for volume manufacturers.

“According to Tesla data, the US pure electric manufacturer accumulated $1.15 billion from global regulatory credits so far this year (Q1-Q3 2021), which includes credits from China, North America and Europe.”