Key points:
VW Group and Ford have committed to a joint UK passenger car CO2 pool
Duration of open pool: 2021
Pool also includes China's SAIC (MG brand)
Question marks remain if Ford will join VW Group's EU pool also
Ford and VW Group are already LCV (N1) pool partners
Ford and VW Group have shared interests in an architecture exchange
According to the latest exclusive Schmidt Automotive Research and United Kingdom government data, Ford has joined Volkswagen Group's UK-only CO2 pool for 2021. The United Kingdom is no longer part of the EU27 plus Norway and Iceland CO2 fleet average legislation that requires passenger car manufacturers to meet a defined mass-adjusted fleet average CO2 target of 95g/km in the old NEDC drive cycle or closer to 120g/km in the WLTP cycle up to 2025, which is being adopted in the UK-only, for the first year.
With the UK's departure from the EU and the following one year transition period, 2021 is the first year the UK is independently setting their own fleet average target, which has by and large been carried over from the EU's system with only very minor changes. Following on from Jaguar Land Rover joining Honda in Tesla's CO2 pool for 2021, as reported, this report can now also exclusively reveal that Ford has now decided to join China's SAIC (MG) in Volkswagen Group's UK-only CO2 pool for 2021.
A Ford spokesperson told this report just weeks ago that Ford will have no problem this year in being CO2 compliant when questioned on its EU position following on from problems it faced at the end of last year with a battery supplier, forcing it to compensate Volvo Cars financially in order to pool with them to remain CO2 compliant.
If Ford is as confident of UK compliance as it is with meeting EU targets – thanks to their Mustang Mach E rollout and continued PHEV push from its Kuga and Explorer models with the Kuga being the most registered PHEV model across Western Europe this year according to the latest European Electric Car Report – one would assume Ford may well have been brought into the pool by Volkswagen Group to help the Germans achieve compliance rather than the other way around.
Ford has been the number one OEM in the UK for a time immoral may well end 2021 behind the Volkswagen brand for the first time on record. During the opening 10-months of the year, Ford achieved a market share of just 7.5 per cent of the total new passenger car market with 106,085 new registrations according to SMMT data. During the same period, the Volkswagen brand achieved 130,338 new registrations translating to a leading market share of 9.2%.
However, the UK, the nation that imports the most German manufactured cars worldwide according to VDA data, with just under 400,000 landing on UK shores in 2020 (14.8% of German export total), is also a market that has a high premium mix, with premium models such as VW Group's Porsche and Audi brands traditionally contributing to higher CO2 mixes.
Volkswagen Group's all-electric dedicated European production site in Zwickau Germany, where all European destined MEB-based models other than the Škoda Enyaq are manufactured, experienced a four-day unscheduled production halt in November impacted by the semiconductor issue.
This may be linked to this pooling decision.
More in-depth analysis and trend-analysis is published each month in the full-report
The European Electric Car Flash Report which is published on a monthly basis covers the entire West European region in a detailed data-driven manner.
May also interest you: Future outlook: Semiconductor crisis accelerates the EV transition... BEVs are now expected to soak up 10.2% (1.132M units) of the total market while with PHEVs added to the equation – a route mostly exploited by premium OEMs click here for the story
*Western Europe 18 Markets: EU Member States prior to the 2004 enlargement plus EFTA markets Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, plus UK