In the ongoing battle of the green press releases, Volkswagen Group has restated its strategic goal of becoming the world’s most “environmentally sustainable” automaker by 2018. The announcement was originally made a year ago when VW Group undertook an ecologically oriented restructuring designed to coordinate responses to increasingly tough global regulations covering vehicles and how they are made and recycled.
For cars on sale in Europe, manufacturers are required to ensure that their new car fleet does not emit more than an average of 130 grams of CO2 per kilometer (g CO2/Km) by 2015 and 95g by 2020. This compares with an average of almost 160g in 2007 and 135.7g in 2011.
In terms of fuel consumption, the 2015 target is approximately equivalent to 5.6 liters per 100 km (l/100 km) of petrol or 4.9 l/100 km of diesel. The 2020 target equates to 4.1 l/100 km of petrol or 3.6 l/100 km of diesel. VW noted that the Group already offers 245 models with CO2 emissions under 120 g/km, and upped the ante for the future by committing to reducing the CO2 output of the European new car fleet to 95 grams per kilometer by 2020.
“This makes the Volkswagen Group the very first automaker to commit to this ambitious target,” according to CEO Martin Winterkorn. That corresponds to a fuel consumption of less than 4 liters, which gives the Group a little cushion in case it does not meet the proposed EC regulation.
“This is a Herculean task calling for the best efforts of all our 40,000 developers. We can do it.” Winterkorn also said that Volkswagen would reach its self-imposed target of reducing the CO2 output of its European new vehicle fleet to less than 120 grams per kilometer by 2015. Volkswagen intends to outperform by more than 12 grams the figure required by law for its vehicle fleet.
