2023-06-24 00:12:39
Since January Electric cars, about to catch up with diesel in Europe
The head of the European automobile employers’ association (ACEA) Sigrid De Vries has spent these days in Madrid at a key political moment for the sector. On the one hand, Spain will assume the rotating presidency of the European Union on July 1three weeks before the general elections in our country.
For another, the content of a new emission regulation, Euro 7, continues to be defined, which will enter into force in mid-2025 for passenger cars and vans. This is a standard that is widely discussed by manufacturers and that can have a very negative impact on the industry.
Spain, not aligned
Also, there is already eight countries that have clearly positioned themselves against and that they are fighting to delay the deadlines for the application of this law, all of them with an important weight in the production of automobiles. Curiously, Space, being one of the nations most affected by the norm due to the type of cars that are produced here, it is not aligned with the eight belligerents.
The Euro 7 regulation does not make any sense, but it is a difficult cost to assume
“The Euro 7 regulations are complicated to implement from a technical point of view and have costs that are difficult to bear. It doesn’t make any sense,” explains Sigrid De Vries in an exclusive interview with EL MUNDO. “After dieselgate, a great effort has been made to reduce emissions and with the current Euro 6 regulations, good results are being achieved, which we understand are sufficient now that the focus is on electric mobility all the way to combustion engines”.
marginal contribution
According to the general director of Acea, with the regulation in force, the reduction of exhaust emissions in 2030, compared to those in 2020, will be 80%, and the application of Euro 7 would only add a negligible 4% more in exchange for making the purchase of a new car more expensive on average by 2,000 euros, plus another 700 euros for the increase in the cost of fuel over the vehicle’s useful life.
We will lose competitiveness with the US and China
This would leave out of the market a large part of the most accessible models, which are precisely the ones with the highest sales and production in Spain. In the case of diesel trucks and buses, this price increase is estimated at 12,000 euros. “The benefit is not proportional and we would lose competitiveness against the US and China,” says De Vries. “Have confidence that, with all the arguments we are presenting, the European Commission will make at least significant adjustments to this norm”.
Taking advantage of the EU presidency
And he also believes that, as Spain assumes the current presidency and is a country so affected by Euro 7, there may be progress. “As president of the EU you have to act with a global vision and put your own opinions a little to one side. I think Sánchez will know how to assess the social and economic impact that it would have to go ahead with the standard, in exchange for a minimum improvement in air quality, an issue that we all bet on”.
As president of the EU you have to act with a global vision and put your own opinions a little to one side.
Surprisingly, the representative of the European automobile association has not taken advantage of his trip to Spain to meet with the opposition partywhen everything indicates that he has many options to head the future Government and it would have been a good opportunity to discuss these current issues with them, especially when his position is much more aligned with Acea’s theses than that of the socialist party.
Delay of three years
Another hot issue is the rules of origin for electric vehicles, a norm that implies that, from 2024, 45% of the value of electric vehicles that are sold in Europe must come from the European Union or the United Kingdom if they want to avoid paying a 10% export fee. Manufacturers with plants in the Old Continent are making high investments for this, but still today many components for this type of car made in those areas come from abroad, especially from China.
The rules of origin for electric vehicles must be delayed to 2027. If not, the cost for brands will be around 4,300 million
“We ask for a three-year moratorium, because otherwise it is estimated that the cost that the brands will have to pay will be around €4.3 billion in those three years and 500,000 vehicles would stop being produced. It does not make sense that that amount of money is used to pay a tariff instead of investing it in electric mobility.
600,000 jobs at risk
For De Vries, all these restrictions that the European Union is imposing on itself can put a brake on our industry, and favor territories like Chinawhich has significantly lower production costs for electric vehicles.
“Furthermore, accepting the premise of its importance, bet everything on a single technology like electrification for mobility, will be a serious problem in case of a new crisis political or energetic, which would make us have an enormous dependence on others. More strategic positions should be adopted that would give us autonomy. The green transition must be done more intelligently, taking into account the global impact and looking for holistic solutions, for example, so that the 600,000 jobs that may be lost in the automotive industry have a way out the other way.”
The head of the European employers’ association acknowledges that dieselgate dynamite the credibility of the sector and that it should never have happened, although he thinks that the page has already been turned and that manufacturers are making a notable effort and providing solutions to improve the environment that allow that lost credibility to be recovered.
Prohibition in 2035
“Now we ask that we be involved in the search for solutions and that politicians and manufacturers work together.” Asked if she really believes that deadlines such as the disappearance of combustion engines in new vehicles from 2035 can be met, she reminds us “that it is about seeing how to do it because, for the moment, this is a requirement of the law. However, there is an agreement to review the situation in 2027 and the truth is that there are many issues that need to be dealt with, from the insufficiency of infrastructure to the impact that all this has on citizens, including industrial and economic issues.”
We have to see how to comply with the end of combustion cars in 2035, but it is a requirement of the law
The general director of ACEA is committed to e-fuels as a formula to contribute to decarbonisation, since the 250 million combustion engine vehicles currently circulating in Europe cannot disappear overnight and their role will be key in the reduction of emissions.
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