(Paris) Car manufacturers are asking the European Union to activate a rare emergency procedure to postpone by two years the application, planned for 2025, of its strengthened rules on CO emissions.2according to an informal document cited by Bloomberg and The World which the manufacturers refuse to comment on.
Unsigned, the document emanates, claims Saturday The WorldRenault and Luca de Meo, its boss who is also president of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association in Brussels (ACEA), the sector’s lobby with the EU.
According to the daily, “the objective of this document […] is to postpone the tightening of the so-called CAFE standard from 2025 to 2027 [Corporate Average Fuel Economy] “, which sets an average threshold for CO emissions2 for all vehicles sold, under penalty of fines.
To obtain this postponement, the text “argues for the use of a little-known provision, Article 122.1 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union [TFUE]a sort of “European 49.3”, which would make it possible to urgently postpone the application of a regulation, bypassing the Strasbourg Parliament,” summarises The World.
To meet the new targets, manufacturers would have to sell on average one electric car for every four combustion vehicles, in order to offset the excess emissions of gases warming the planet from the latter.
However, the European electric market “has been stagnating for over a year at less than 15% for passenger cars and 7% for utility vehicles”, recalls the note cited by The World.
“Penalties could reach 13 billion euros for passenger cars and 3 billion for commercial vehicles,” warns the document, which presents three future scenarios.
A first solution would consist of reducing the production of thermal vehicles by more than two million units and that of vans by 700,000 units, “the equivalent of more than eight European factories”, with the associated job losses.
“The second is to reach an agreement with American or Chinese manufacturers. [Tesla, Volvo, filiale de Geely, ou MG par exemple] to buy carbon credits from them,” reports The WorldThis solution would amount to subsidising non-European competitors and in any case “would not be enough”, the document also warns.
“The third option would be for states to increase subsidies for the purchase of electric vehicles, but they do the opposite, or for manufacturers to lower prices to achieve a 22% market share of electric vehicles,” writes The World.
Contacted by AFP on Friday, the ACEA did not confirm and referred to a press release from Thursday expressing “its growing concern” about the sector’s ability to comply with the new emissions standard.