Slashdot Mirror


Fiat Chrysler Will Pay Tesla To Dodge Billions In Emissions Fines (theverge.com)

MDMurphy writes: While people have good and bad things to say about Tesla, one consistent thing has been that the cars emit zero emissions when operating. But in Europe, in exchange for cash, Tesla is merging its fleet with that of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA). The amount FCA is paying Tesla is presumably less than they would in fines if they were on their own. With this merging of the fleets, in Europe at least, a Tesla is no more clean than a diesel Fiat. "The Italian-American carmaker is behind on meeting the new standard, and the so-called open pool option available at the EU allows automakers to group their fleets together to meet the targets," reports Bloomberg. "Payments to Tesla, whose electric cars don't produce CO2 emissions, may amount to over 500 million euros, according to Jefferies."

Ars Technica reports on the strict new EU regulations: "From 2020, 95 percent of an automaker's new cars sold in the EU have to meet this target, with the remaining 5 percent falling under the law in 2021. And the penalties for failing are draconian: a $107 'excess emissions premium' per gram of CO2 over the target, for every single car registered in the EU that year. For some OEMs, this has the potential to be ruinous; if FCA's portfolio were the same in 2021 as it was in 2018, the automaker would have to pay some $3.12 billion, out of total net global profits of $4.1 billion."

2 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. And the best part is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    CO2 has always been regulated by ocean temps. CO2 doesn't drive climate change, it only adds a minute additional warming and theoretically the feedbacks are what get us. But the feedback model assumed the anthropogenic portion of the atmospheric CO2 was responsible for the response from the rest of the atmospheric CO2. So the feedback error causes the models to overestimate the forcing expected from increases in concentration.

    So you guys are worrying about faulty predictions from shoddy science. LOL enjoy your religion now that I've triggered you!

  2. Re:Tesla is successful in an undistorted market to by SlaveToTheGrind · · Score: 0, Troll

    That also describes Tesla now since they are still maintaining sales even though tax credits have mostly evaporated for the cars they sell.

    Again, quite the opposite: this is yet another external revenue stream, just like the tax credits, that Tesla is using to fund operations precisely because it cannot do so solely with the dollars consumers are willing to pay for the products Tesla produces. The market remains distorted.