WOLFSBURG (dpa-AFX) - The sluggish sales of electric cars may cost the struggling Volkswagen Group billions of euros in fines this year. The management estimated the possible costs of missing the Brussels CO2 fleet limits for new cars at 1.5 billion euros as things stand. The statements were made in an exchange with analysts the previous evening, as confirmed by a Group spokesperson on Thursday. In the course of last year, there had been a few significantly higher estimates. VW shares, which are listed on the Dax, recently gained around two percent. Analysts also pointed to a fundamentally confident tone from the management.

According to the current situation, car manufacturers in the EU must comply with stricter emission limits for climate-damaging carbon dioxide this year - if the average CO2 emissions of newly sold vehicles are too high, fines will be imposed. In view of the current difficult situation in the German and European automotive industry, which is having an impact on jobs and value creation, many politicians are currently calling for this mechanism to be suspended anyway and for suppliers not to be put under even more pressure with fines.

Car manufacturers have several options to limit the penalties. On the one hand, they can try to significantly boost sales of electric cars or hybrid drives. On the other hand, more efficient combustion engines can also reduce fuel consumption and thus CO2 emissions. In addition, manufacturers can register so-called pools with other car manufacturers with the EU and would then be counted as a joint supplier. In this way, manufacturers with a strong focus on combustion engines can reduce their fleet emissions by bringing in electric car specialists.

The discussion with analysts was a so-called "pre-close call", which is common practice for automotive companies and in which the company informs the experts from research firms one last time before the communicative quiet phase in the run-up to the business figures./men/jsl/he