Luca de Meo, CEO of the Renault group and president of ACEA (the association of European car manufacturers ), launched an alarm on the risks of the loss of competitiveness; of the European automotive industry in this transformative phase with the advent of electrification. For this reason, as president of ACEA, he made an appeal to European politicians, asking for an ambitious plan to be prepared that will allow the European automotive industry to continue to be competitive in the future.
Our industry has long had a competitive edge along the internal combustion engine vehicle value chain. This will not be the case. more the case of electric vehicles, at least in the short term. Our competitors have many cards in hand that we do not yet have, i.e. upstream of the battery electric vehicle supply chain. Furthermore, their support from the authorities – national and local is; been massive and is still increasing in China and the United States.
The problems highlighted by Luca de Meo are many. The first is; that of political support. The Italian manager takes the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) as an examplewhich we have talked about several times. It is an initiative of the United States Government that allows to stimulate local industry in this moment of transformation.
In fact, through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), we see the US boosting its industry in the green transition, while Europe’s approach is the green transition. that of regulating the sector, often in an unsynchronized way.
WITH EURO 7 AUTO PI? EXPENSIVE
Luca de Meo then points the finger at the new Euro 7 legislation which imposes unrealistic constraints on car manufacturers and which will lead to the to an increase in costs (about 1,000 euros per car for manufacturers, double that for consumers). Rising prices of new cars could discourage people from buying them. This would also mean slowing down the generational turnover of cars. Therefore, the circulating fleet would become more and more; old and more; pollutant. De Meo estimates a market drop of about 7%. A drop that could lead the car manufacturers to close some plants.
Compliance with Euro 7 would lead to cost increases that could dissuade customers from buying these new cars. This is could extend the life of cars: which means more cars; old, with older emissions; high, which remain longer; long on the roads.
For Luca de Meo, greater benefits would be obtained if the investments necessary to adapt the cars to Euro 7 were directed towards electrification, to make these cars more efficient. convenient. It is a concept that already exists in the world. several automakers had expressed in the past talking about the new emissions regulations.
We argue that we could get far better cost-effectiveness if we redirect the huge investments Euro 7 would require towards electrification, making electric vehicles more affordable. cost-effective and developing zero-emission technologies to improve the fleet.
< p>So, in view of the presentation of the Green Deal Industry Planwhich can be seen as a response to the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Luca de Meo, as president of ACEA, urges European politicians to prepare an ambitious plan to support the automotive industry of the Old Continent.
ACEA, in fact, believes that the Green Deal Industry Plan, if successfully implemented, could be a first step to help maintain investment in the European Union, while safeguarding free trade throughout the world. The industry also hopes that the Critical Raw Materials Actwill improve the ability to ability to extract, refine and process raw materials, as well as improve security of supply. Otherwise, vehicle manufacturers from the European Union will continue to find themselves at a significant disadvantage compared to their counterparts from other regions.
Finally, ACEA shared its forecast for the sector cars in 2023.
Despite the many uncertainties that await us, the market should begin to embark on a recovery process in 2023. We expect around 9 cars to be sold this year 8 million new cars across the region, up 5% from 2022. However, this remains 25% below 2019 pre-crisis levels, showing that that we are still in a fragile situation. In this context, it is all the more It is important for our industry to strengthen its position on the global stage.
The best of OnePlus? OnePlus 9 Pro, buy it at the best price from Amazon at 519 euros.