The Government of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is putting pressure on the European Union with the intention that Brussels bring forward to 2025 – initially scheduled for 2026 – the review of the environmental agenda that contemplates the ban on the sale of combustion cars in the Old Town. Continent by 2035.
In a joint effort with the Czech Republic, Italy wants the rest of the community bloc to recognize a “broader range” of mobility solutions beyond battery electric vehicles and hydrogen cars, which are slow to be adopted in the territory. which in fact means a review of the possible ban on selling conventional combustion cars.
“The industry is at a critical juncture, facing important challenges related to production, employment and global competition, which require urgent and coordinated action at the European level,” includes the draft of the document prepared by the Italian Executive advanced by ‘Bloomberg’.
In the document, still subject to changes, it is admitted that the competitiveness of the European Union and, especially, of the automobile industry “must continue to be an axis of the common industrial policy.”
Meanwhile, the European car industry is struggling to meet its European climate agenda goals amid the onslaught of Chinese competition and falling consumer demand for electric cars. In addition, Donald Trump’s victory in the US election has also raised fears of additional tariffs on exports in the near future, particularly for German manufacturers, which ship more vehicles to the United States than to any other country.
As of today, the European Commission, headed by Úrsula Von der Leyen, has already committed to creating an exception for cars that run on e-fuels, which are manufactured using captured carbon dioxide and renewable electricity.
France’s position
Rome’s possible offensive on Brussels comes at a time when national governments are revolting against the Government of the European Union. Last Tuesday, France admitted that it was negotiating with several member states to create a common front to avoid the application of sanctions to car manufacturers that fail to meet the carbon dioxide emissions reduction targets in 2025.
Since 2019, the European regulation baptized as ‘CAFE’ foresees a trajectory of reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from cars sold in the different community markets that will lead to the de facto ban in 2035 of new registrations of combustion cars.
In a few months, in January 2025, Brussels has already announced that it will begin to apply this regulation, which in practice will require a reduction in emissions of 15% compared to pre-2020 levels, which means having to sell in just eight weeks one electric car for every four thermal ones.
Projections vary as to the total amount of penalties that manufacturers who do not meet these sales quotas would have to end up paying. The industry estimates that it would be between 10,000 and 16,000 million euros.
However, in its central scenario, the potential impact could be limited to 5.1 billion euros.
In this context, the support of Eastern European countries for the French initiative seems predictable. Romania, for example, a bastion of Dacia (Renault group), with no battery electric cars in its catalogue, except for the Spring imported from China, considers that the European electrification plan is too aggressive. Italy and the Czech Republic could also be in favor of this new revision.
Faconauto asks the EU to advance the emissions review for industrial vehicles by two years
Meanwhile, from Spain, the president of the Federation of Automotive Dealer Associations (Faconauto), Marta Blázquez, has asked the European Union to bring forward to 2025 the review of polluting gas emissions targets for industrial vehicles, planned in a start for 2027.
The objective would be to evaluate the necessary conditions for regulatory compliance and eliminate fines for companies that fail to achieve the purpose, as defended by Blázquez during his speech at the III Industrial Vehicle Observatory held this Thursday at the Repsol Campus in Madrid.
Brussels has set a target of a 15% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions for heavy vehicles in 2025, 45% by 2030 and 90% by 2040, taking the levels prior to the coronavirus pandemic as a reference.
However, Faconauto warns that at the current pace of market electrification, and given the lack of charging infrastructure and hydrogen stations for heavy vehicles, along with incipient technological development, the sector will hardly meet these objectives.
Therefore, they consider it essential to establish “appropriate” conditions that allow operators to invest in zero-emission vehicles and operate them “profitably.” In any case, beyond electric vehicles, Faconauto highlights the role that renewable fuels can play in all this, which, in its opinion, are a “viable and immediate” alternative to reduce emissions without waiting for future developments.
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