According to exclusive reporting from the European Electric Car Report industry publication, Ford Motor Company – previously confident of achieving 2020 EU CO2 targets, before the forced delivery stop of its Kuga PHEV model – have now decided to open their EU CO2 emissions pool up and have omitted Volvo Cars to their pool.
Ford Europe that can count its Kuga PHEV model as the equal most registered PHEV model in the West European region during the opening 9-months of the year, next to Mitsubishi's Outlander PHEV model, with an equal 21,000 units according to the latest September edition of the European Electric Car Report, has decided to open up its EU CO2 pool and add Volvo Cars.
The aim: to avoid fines for missing CO2 compliance following a delivery stop to its key Kuga PHEV plug-in model following battery problems.
During the opening 9-months of the year, the Kuga SUV PHEV accounted for 92 per cent of Ford's West European total 22,700 plug-in volumes, helping Ford achieve a 5.1 per cent plug-in mix of its total regional deliveries, putting them on a comfortable path to CO2 compliance prior to the delivery stop.
Ford CEO Jim Farley underlined that fact during the company's Q3 results call yesterday evening.
Volvo Cars, controlled by China's Geely Motors Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd are now likely to benefit handsomely from helping Ford comply and avoid costly fines.
During the Q3 investor results call yesterday (Wednesday) Ford said they had set aside $0.4 billion related to Kuga warranty, CO2 pooling and other expenses.
Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath previously exclusively told this report that the all electric brand belonging to Volvo Cars will also be included in the Volvo Cars pool and will add around 10,000 West European BEV models across 6 European markets this year (YTD: 3,800) while Volvo's PHEV mix of its total 9-months West European registrations reached 30 per cent, the highest PHEV mix out of any manufacturer.
According to the official document, applications to join the open Ford pool close November 30, and at this point are only available for 2020.
More in-depth analysis is available each month in the European Electric Car Report, available on a monthly or annual basis here