General Motors to pay $146 million fine for higher-than-promised CO2 emissions

The case involves about 5.9 million pickup trucks and SUVs built between 2012 and 2018. Tests on certain models found that their CO₂ emissions were on average more than 10 percent higher than GM’s claims.

The company will also give up about 50 million tons of carbon credits, with a market value of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Already fined last year for higher fuel consumption

The Biden administration tightened emissions standards for cars in the US in March. The permitted emissions for new cars will be gradually reduced over the coming years. This should encourage manufacturers to electrify their fleets.

In June 2023, GM agreed to pay $128.2 million for missing fuel economy targets for pickup trucks sold in 2018 and 2019.