Lots of egg on face tonight - and a rather large bill from Brussels for the Bombay dope wallahs, er, UK taxpayers, who of course will pay it:
- less than 3 months ago, JLR/Haymarket's lickspittle, sorry, 'independent' 'freelancer', Nick Gibbs, was dispatched to pour scorn on Transport&Environment's damaging - but true - report on the emissions fiend JLR:
https://www.transportenvironment.org/sites/te/files/publications/2020_10_TE_Car_CO2_report_final.pdf
who objected to this:
'Those that achieved least improvement so far and furthest from their targets are Daimler and Jaguar Land Rover, with a 9 g/km gap (9%) and 13 g/km (10%) respectively.'
- we'll get to Daimler, and how it faired, in a minute.
Gibbs said:
'Jaguar Land Rover has challenged the findings of a report that claims the automaker is at risk of missing its tougher CO2 emissions target in Europe and could face fines.'
Analysis of Jaguar Land Rover's first-half European sales carried out by environmental group T&E showed the automaker was 13 grams per km short of its CO2 target, the worst result of 13 automakers in the ranking.
europe.autonews.com
- well he would, given that he effectively works for JLR via its PR contractor Haymarket.
So no actual countering proof from Nick or JLR, just a flat rebuttal - so it was true and probably then some.
Now today, with 2020 passed, the scores are in, so to speak, and we find - I know, the suspense, ...when it comes to JLR - will they be the 'White Hat' for once, ..er, NO:
'Jaguar Land Rover, which is a fifth of the size of Daimler or BMW, ended up paying fines, despite already facing less stringent targets because of its relatively small scale.'
News, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, the worldʼs leading global business publication
www.ft.com
So even though Cameron negotiated a special deal for 'the UK' - this Indian-owned company - back around 2014-'15, giving it a fleet average CO2 target of a compatively enormous 132 g/km, compared to 95 g/km for everyone else - BMW, Daimler, VAG etc - they missed it, failed - I know, what a surprise - JLR failing at something when it's real, tangible, something to do with actual work, engineering, measurable, objective, not something in PR-world, or UK.gov-world, or Media-world, where everything for JLR is always unicorns and sunlit uplands, stunning, gamechanging, world-beating, orgasmic... - you get the drift.
So Gibbs' unnamed JLR spokeswoman was bascially lying through her teeth, when she/Gibbs said:
'"We don't recognize those figures," a JLR spokeswoman told Automotive News Europe. "We are quite a bit closer."'
- cheeky, arrogant, know-nothing f'er - almost certainly one of Hallett's PR team.
At least we know or understood crystal clear one thing now:
'T&E figures showed JLR’s first half CO2 at 159 g/km, but closed the gap to 145 g/km because of supercredits it earned from sales of the full-electric Jaguar I-Pace'
- gee, I wonder is that why the hitherto completely dead I-Pace suddenly took off 'sales'-wise towards the end of 2020?
Of course it was. Those couple of thousand in all 'sales' of the I-Pace in H2 2020 in Norway are now so obvious.
Same in UK, especially just gone December, with huge nunbers of I-Paces registered - around 2,000-2,500 by my guess.
I would say JLR 'sold'/registered an extra at least 10,000 I-Paces in H2 2020, above what of course it was really selling of the I-Pace - effectively nil - in order to massively, as quickly, and as falsely as possible, reduce its EU fleet average CO2 fine - F...ing C...s.
And still the f'ers missed it - a ridiculously high 132 grammes.
Useless criminal sh!ts.
So how did the other 'partner in crime', bad boy of 'deadly' CO2 do, Daimler, who were neck and neck with JLR until as recently as just a few months ago, away from target, and hence massive fines? They did some work - a LOT of work:
Daimler avoids fines after hitting European CO2 targets
'Mercedes-Benz-owner enjoys ‘tremendous ramp-up’ in sales of electric cars in second half of year'
'Ola Kallenius said on Thursday the company sold 160,000 electrified Mercedes cars during the pandemic-ridden year and a further 30,000 electric Smart cars, avoiding millions of euros in fines.
The Stuttgart-based manufacturer was an industry laggard in the drive to cut emissions for most of the year and had been expected to take a hit from Brussels.'
- that's a boss, a CEO, fizzing with energy, leading his company - doing almost the impossible - taking Mercedes from the back of the field, to effectively the front now - EQS, EQA imminent - in just half a year.
In nearly the same period, start of September 2020, Bollore hasn't even been seen.
How can you lead, if people doubt you even are a thing, and not some sick joke of Hallett, or the UK state as a psy op?
Kallenius is the toast of Stuttgart tonight - saved Daimler several billiuon euros, and probably thousands of further jobs pencilled in for the axe, if the fines had been levied.
And now we probably, almost certainly know why Halewood plant management/JLR HQ is playing such hardball with the workforce - total shyster behaviour - trying to stop a few £million being handed over to HMRC for nat. ins., and redundancy money of at most £50m, spread over the next year at least - peanuts really, for supposedly such a large company - but one whose beancounters are going spare over the EU fines, potentially up to around a £bn, incoming.
They'd be even higher of course, much higher, if JLR had to certify its vehicles, for CO2, mpg, electric range etc, with a real regulator, not the DfT, as it real emissions are up to 100% higher than 'certified' by the jokers/criminals in Whitehall.
It's all going wrong for JLR, though, all flowing in the wrong direction, after its charmed life of 2011 till around 2016/17.
All good frauds come to an end.
