Stellantis to hit emissions target without Tesla's help, says CEO

(Reuters) - Franco-Italian carmaker Stellantis expects to achieve its European carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions targets this year without environmental credits bought from Tesla, its CEO said in an interview published on Tuesday.

Stellantis was formed through the merger of France's PSA and Italy's FCA, which spent about 2 billion euros ($2.40 billion) to buy European and U.S. CO2 credits from electric vehicle maker Tesla over the 2019-2021 period.

"With the electrical technology that PSA brought to Stellantis, we will autonomously meet carbon dioxide emission regulations as early as this year," Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares said in the interview with French weekly Le Point.

"Thus, we will not need to call on European CO2 credits and FCA will no longer have to pool with Tesla or anyone."

California-based Tesla earns credits for exceeding emissions and fuel economy standards and sells them to other automakers that fall short.

European regulations require all car manufacturers to reduce CO2 emissions for private vehicles to an average of 95 grams per kilometre this year.

A Stellantis spokesman said the company is in discussions with Tesla about the financial implications of the decision to stop the pooling agreement.

"As a result of the combination of Groupe PSA and FCA, Stellantis will be in a position to achieve CO2 targets in Europe for 2021 without open passenger car pooling arrangements with other automakers," he added.

Tesla's sales of environmental credits to rival automakers helped it to announce slightly better than expected first-quarter revenue this week.

The next tightening of European regulations will soon be the subject of proposals from the European Commission. The 2030 target could be lowered to less than 43 grams/km.

(Reporting by Gilles Guillaume and Claude Chendjou; Writing by Lucinda Langlands-Perry; Editing by David Goodman)