When it comes to combating climate change, the European Union isn’t letting the some of the world’s most notable automakers off the hook just because they don’t build many vehicles. The EU will slap fines on Ferrari and Aston Martin because the sports car companies failed to meet requirements for CO2 reduction in 2015.
Under requirements set by the European Environmental Agency, every carmaker selling its cars in the EU was required to hit a fleet-wide target of 130 grams of CO2 per kilometer, as part of the continent-wide move towards an ultimate aim of 95 g/km in the 2020-2021 timeframe. Most of the companies managed to exceed the goal; average emissions of cars sold in the EU came in at 119 g/km. But sadly for Aston Martin and Ferrari, they were the only ones to miss the target.
Admittedly, Ferrari and Aston Martin have a rather minor impact on global CO2 emissions; the two companies sold 11,279 cars between them last year. (In comparison, Ford sold more than 780,000 F-150s that same year in the United States alone.) But as the kids say, rules is rules—so Maranello and Gaydon will be facing fines for their inability to meet the goals.
About those fines, though: All things considered, they’re rather insignificant—especially for companies specializing in cars with six-figure pricetags. Automotive News Europe ran the numbers through the EU’s formula for calculating penalties, and found that Ferrari will likely have to pay all of €410,760, while Aston Martin will likely fork over €36,370. That works out to about €54 per car Ferrari sold last year, and €10 per Aston Martin. Considering these are the sort of companies that charge four figures for a cupholder, these penalties probably aren’t keeping executives up at night.