At the Paris Motor Show, BMW calls for the ban on thermal engines to be reversed

Last Monday, the Paris Motor Show launched its 2024 edition with a first day dedicated to the press. The opportunity for the brands present at the event (much more numerous than in 2022) to present their latest new products, and bring their teams on stage to discuss their state of mind in a context where the automotive sector is torn apart over the question of electricity.

On the BMW stand, although adorned with a gigantic sign reading “We are Electric”, boss Oliver Zipse took the floor to invite the European Union to review its directive on the ban on cars equipped with a combustion engine, in 2035.

BMW warns against dependence on Chinese batteries

Quoted by Reuters, the businessman who joined the board of directors of BMW in 2015 and the position of CEO in 2019 declared that a “correcting the target of 100% battery electric vehicles by 2035 as part of a global program to reduce CO2 emissions would also allow European manufacturers to depend less on China for batteries”.

An argument that the Munich manufacturer can use, as currently, its range of electric cars is equipped with batteries supplied by the Chinese giant CATL, in addition to the Korean Samsung SDI. In June, hopes for European production were dashed by the cancellation of a 2 billion euro Swedish project with battery manufacturer Northvolt. The fault lies in production delays.

With Northvolt, BMW also maintained the hope of seeing the European precursor of batteries for electric cars install a production site in Germany, in Heide, in Schleswig-Holstein.

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In China, BMW’s investments continue. Last year, the brand hoped that half of its global sales in 2030 would be electric cars. But that’s not all, because between the country and the manufacturer, there are also projects in Europe. Among them, that of the Chinese company EVE Power, which is due to join CATL in Hungary in 2026 and begin producing batteries for BMW.

A production which is therefore closer to BMW’s main markets, but which in no way makes it possible to make production European, while the capital for these investments in production centers would therefore remain Chinese, with parts and raw materials coming from China. .

The ban on thermal models in Europe in 2035 “could threaten the European automobile industry at its heart”added Oliver Zipse. Regulations “will lead, under current assumptions, to a massive shrinkage of the industry as a whole,” he said before pointing out that “to win, it is essential to follow a techno-agnostic approach, within the political framework”.

The opinion of the Chinese BYD: “this will kill these manufacturers”

Further on, at the BYD stand, the speech is very different. Quoted by the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitungthe president of the Chinese manufacturer specializing in electric cars, Stella Li, declared: “We are hearing today that many companies are returning to combustion cars. But if the whole world switches to electric cars in five years, they won’t be ready because they won’t have invested. […] In the long term, it is very dangerous. It will kill these car companies.”

The boss of the Paris Motor Show, who was delighted yesterday that the automotive ecosystem could once again meet in physics, was right. But the meeting at the Porte de Versailles appears for the first time as a real confrontation between two worlds. And in their midst, politicians and visitors, who will have the power to decide.