The production of electric vehicles worries Commissioner Breton

The automotive sector in the European Union is lagging behind on the roadmap to achieve the elimination of fossil fuel vehicles by 2035, as required by the EU regulation on car emissions. 

This is the picture that has been drawn following the European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton‘s meeting with representatives of the Union’s automotive industry, held in Brussels on Monday 9th September. 

“Our job is not to sugarcoat things, or sit by and wait for our 2035 targets to materialise magically.” These would be the words spoken by Breton in front of the representatives of the automotive industry, while drawing the picture of a scenario that the Internal Market Commissioner himself would have described as “not rosy.” 

The meeting held on Monday, furthermore, comes a week after the news, confirmed by Volkswagen, of the stop to the production of electric vehicles at the Audi plant in Brussels, which is now at risk of closure. 

Electric vehicle production in fact is decreasing across all the Union, and fewer electric vehicles are expected to be manifactured in 2024 than in 2023, when 1,8 million models were produced. 

The EVs demand that currently stagnates in the European Union is contributing to this slowdown, alongside, according to Breton, the inability to convince consumers about the benefits of electric. 

On the other hand, if we take a look at the Chinese situation, the picture looks even less reassuring: currently the European Union has a deficit with Beijing on electric cars that amounts to 8,8 billion euros, and many of the 13 million jobs related to this sector would be at risk.

“European carmakers should ramp up production of affordable EVs – say on X the European NGO Transport and Environment (T&E) – EU policy-makers should stay the course on the 2035 target while also rewarding local battery manufacturing. Our senior director Julia Poliscanova will stress the need to go all in”.

By 2035, the game will also be played on the ability to expand charging infrastructure, which currently is mainly concentrated in France, Germany and the Netherlands.

“Excellent meeting with all automotive stakeholders – posted on X the EU Commissioner Breton – It’s essential that we reconcile climate goals with competitiveness, as echoed in Mario Draghi’s report. With Route35, we have a realistic picture of the state of play —and where we need to accelerate to meet the 2035 target“.