For 2025, Europe sends Renault and its allies back to the ropes!

Europe has responded to Luca de Meo and the manufacturers who wanted a postponement of the new CO2 standard planned for the beginning of 2025. Brussels sends the diamond back to the ropes and recalls that the schedule has been known since 2019.

This is a fight that is beginning to show its clans. The tightening of CO2 standards planned for 2025 in Europe does not please everyone, ACEA and Renault in the lead. Luca de Meo, head of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, made this known to Brussels in a letter that describes the utopian conditions for achieving the new objective set by Europe. In particular, the obligation to have a mix of electric vehicles between 20 and 25% next year. For the moment, this seems unthinkable given the fairly clear slowdown in electric registrations across Europe.

Fines of up to 16 billion euros?

The ACEA chaired by Renault continues by explaining that the current text, which includes a The lowering of the “CO2” limit for manufacturers’ fleets could result in some 16 billion euros in fines next year. Some manufacturers are also behind, such as Volkswagen, Ford and also the Renault group, despite a significant presence of hybrids and electrics in the catalogue. But the success of Dacia, which mainly sells thermal vehicles, does not help.

“The industry has had some time to prepare for this new phase of the transition… The targets that apply from 2025 were adopted by the co-legislators in 2019“, recalls Tim McPhie, spokesperson for the Commission to our colleagues at Euractiv. Concretely, the EU reproaches a very “interested” attempt by certain automobile manufacturers while the tightening had been known for a long time. This approach did not fail to provoke a reaction from the NGO Transport & Environment, which points out that manufacturers have achieved record margins in recent months.. The recent race for discounts on electrified models smacks of a rush for those who want to increase their mix of electrics, while prices have continued to rise in recent years. By trying too hard to pull the string, manufacturers may have broken it.

Germany’s fault?

For others, the only cause of the problems would be the removal of the bonus in Germany at the end of last year. We already know the weight of purchase subsidies in the growth of sales of electric vehicles, but that cannot explain everything. However, for the former head of CAR (Center Automotive Research), a doctoral student in economics and an automobile expert since the 1980s (having held major positions at Opel/GM and Porsche), there is no comparison. For him, “The reason why the numbers are falling in Germany is entirely Germany’s fault,” but he also castigates these “politicians who keep telling people that the combustion engine will last forever and, of course, make them doubt about buying an electric car“. In the meantime, Luca de Meo has found a strange contradictor in this story in the person of Carlos Tavares.