Speaking at a car industry congress in Turin, Marchionn said he was "baffled by the lack of pure common sense" in the proposals, which he insisted penalised more efficient small car manufacturers and favour carmakers producing bigger, less environmentally friendly luxury cars.

“This type of nonsense is clearly the result of political pressures that have been hard at work to protect particular participants in the European automotive market,” probably referring to German carmakers. Having just completed a two-year stint as president of ACEA, the Fiat boss is now venting his concerns independently with no constraints from the association's luxury carmaker-members such as Mercedes and BMW. Fiat and French carmaker Peugeot-Citroen oppose the complicated formula adopted by Brussels which is based on the average weight of a manufacturer's car fleet that puts the heaviest burden on more environmentally efficient small car makers. This, they feel, effectively makes small carmakers unfairly subsidise large car manufacturers. "Fiat as a group will do everything in its power to protect its economic interests in a manner consistent with the Commission's objective of substantially reducing CO2 emissions," said Marchionne.