According to documents from the European Commission, Porsche withdrew from its parent company Volkswagen’s emissions pool just a few days ago. Car manufacturers are permitted to aggregate the emissions of their own and competing brands through a process known as ‘pooling’ in order to comply with EU limits. An official EU filing dated 5 August 2026 confirms the change in Porsche’s approach to meeting European fleet emissions requirements.
Under the new arrangement, the German sports car manufacturer will form an open pool with Xpeng for 2026 and 2027. Volkswagen Group holds a five per cent stake in the Chinese electric car manufacturer, which is currently expanding its European presence.
Neither Zuffenhausen nor Wolfsburg has provided a detailed explanation as to why this is the case. However, Porsche has at least confirmed the CO₂ pooling arrangement with Xpeng to the Handelsblatt: this creates ‘flexibility in the transition to electric mobility,’ but does not alter Porsche’s long-term strategy. “We are continuing to invest in the transformation of our company, the electrification of our vehicles and innovative technologies to reduce our emissions sustainably through our own efforts,” said a company spokesperson.
Xpeng delivered just under 20,000 vehicles across Western Europe during the first six months of 2026, according to data from Schmidt Automotive Research. The market researcher expects the manufacturer to approach 50,000 deliveries in the region over the full year, helped by the arrival of its L03 volume model. This could also see Xpeng overtake Polestar in Western European registrations later this year.
The pooling arrangement could provide Xpeng with additional revenue from the pooling agreement, while Porsche will have to meet the EU requirements separately from the other Volkswagen Group brands. The financial impact on Porsche in 2026 and 2027 will depend partly on the development of its electric vehicle sales.
Porsche’s battery-electric vehicle volumes in Western Europe have fallen by almost 30 per cent year on year in 2026, according to Schmidt Automotive Research. BEVs currently account for around 30 per cent of its regional registrations, compared with almost 40 per cent during the same period last year. At the same time, Porsche is shifting its product strategy towards a higher proportion of combustion-engine vehicles. This includes plans for a new combustion-engined model in the Macan segment.
Volkswagen Group recorded average fleet emissions of 100 g/km in the EU27 plus Norway and Iceland in 2025, above its manufacturer-specific target of 93.6 g/km. According to earlier analyses, the VW Group would therefore have had to pay up to 2.2 billion euros in fines had the EU not ‘relaxed’ the CO₂ fleet targets at the eleventh hour. However, this also means that Volkswagen will have to compensate for any 2025 shortfall through its performance in 2026 and 2027 under the three-year compliance mechanism. As a general rule, carmakers do not have to limit CO₂ pooling to brands within their own group. They can form pools with external manufacturers and negotiate the terms directly. Under EU rules, open pooling arrangements must be transparent and economically reasonable.
Removing Porsche’s comparatively high-emission fleet from the Volkswagen pool would lower the emissions burden on the remaining pool members. The group must ultimately achieve the required three-year average to avoid non-compliance penalties or further pooling costs at the end of 2027.
circabc.europa.eu (EU declaration of intent), schmidtmatthias.de, handelsblatt.com (in German)