Which pollutes the most: a Volkswagen Golf or a Ferrari with a 12-cylinder engine?

Most people would say the Ferrari, but the correct answer is more nuanced, according to the Italian sportscar manufacturer https://trib.al/2RhiCUu 
Ferrari’s boss, Louis Camilleri, says it depends on how much you drive it.

“If you take a V12 Ferrari that only runs 3,000 kilometers a year, probably it has less emissions than a very small car that runs every day,” he said on an investor call this week http://trib.al/2RhiCUu 
You can see where he’s coming from: Ferrari’s wealthy customers often own several of its sportscars, which they treat as prized works of art.

From a climate perspective, what matters is the total volume of carbon spewed into the atmosphere http://trib.al/2RhiCUu 
Still, @chrismbryant thinks this is one battle Ferrari is destined to lose.

Governments are right to clamp down on carbon emissions. The earsplitting growl of a Ferrari engine is a potent symbol, even if it isn’t the primary problem http://trib.al/2RhiCUu 
Because Ferrari is a low-volume car producer, it isn’t subject to the same stringent rules for European manufacturers.

The sportscar maker only has to achieve 277g of Co2 per km. Hence its average fleet emissions are still pretty high http://trib.al/2RhiCUu 
The regulatory environment is, nonetheless, getting tougher. In several large markets there are plans to ban combustion engine vehicles altogether:

🇳🇴Norway will do so from 2025
🇬🇧The U.K. might follow by 2030
🇺🇸California will join them in 2035 http://trib.al/2RhiCUu 
🇫🇷France wants to get people who buy polluting vehicles to pay an additional gas-guzzlers tax, which could add 50,000 euros ($58,630) to the cost of a Ferrari by 2022.

Even deep-pocketed Ferrari fans might balk at that http://trib.al/2RhiCUu 
Ferrari isn’t ignoring green matters.

By 2022, Ferrari says 60% of its models will have a hybrid powertrain. But it won’t have an electric car for several more years http://trib.al/2RhiCUu 
The fact that some Ferraris rarely leave the garage complicates the cost-benefit calculation of electrification.

Manufacturing batteries produces carbon emissions too: The environmental benefits improve the more an EV is driven http://trib.al/2RhiCUu 
Camilleri, 65, isn’t sure that purist customers will make the electric switch.

He thinks fully electric vehicles won’t comprise even half of Ferrari’s sales during his lifetime and they’ll never reach 100% http://trib.al/2RhiCUu 
To put that in context, BloombergNEF projects that by 2040 electric models overall will comprise 58% of global vehicle sales.

The problem for Camilleri is that tastes do change, especially if his rivals make compelling electric sportscars http://trib.al/2RhiCUu 
Ferrari has a massive racing fanbase.

The company risks losing a younger generation of car buyers who might start to prefer manufacturers such as Tesla or Porsche http://trib.al/2RhiCUu 
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