Stellantis declares war on other European car manufacturers and immediately wants stricter CO2 regulations. Why?
The automotive lobby ACEA (which includes Volkswagen and Renault) is calling on the European Union to activate a rare emergency procedure to postpone by two years the application of its stricter CO2 emission rules, scheduled for 2025, but, in a speech given on Sunday at the Chantilly Concours d'Elegance , the Stellantis boss strongly opposed this move in the name of competition. latribune.fr 15 September 2024,
Chantilly beauty contest (from the organization's website)
“ It would be surreal to change the rules now” on CO2 emissions in Europe, as some carmakers are calling for, Carlos Tavares, head of Stellantis, said on Sunday. According to an informal document published in the press, the automotive lobby ACEA (which includes Volkswagen and Renault, but no longer Stellantis) is asking the European Union to activate a rare emergency procedure to postpone the application, scheduled for 2025, by two years , of its stricter rules on CO2 emissions. Those rules require companies to sell more electric models or face hefty fines.
But the electric car market in Europe has not grown as expected in recent months, mainly due to the abolition of purchase subsidies in Germany and because consumers do not want electric cars. For Stellantis, the second European group, this changes nothing: " from the point of view of the competition so dear to the European Union, it would be surreal to change the rules now" , Tavares said in an interview with AFP on Sunday.
“ Everyone has known the rules for a long time, everyone has had time to prepare, and so now we are competing ,” said the CEO of Stellantis from the Concours d'Elegance of Chantilly (Oise). Q× Carlos Tavares has long opposed the introduction of rules that are too restrictive for the automotive industry in terms of CO2 emissions. For years he has argued that electric cars will not sell if they remain too expensive.
“ The dogmatism (of European decision-makers) has collapsed against the wall of reality ,” he explained. “ We are in a system where the regulator wants consumers to buy these cars, and the consumer says no thanks, not at that price (…) .”
“ But now we have the cars, we have organized ourselves to make the necessary sales, we are breathing down Tesla's neck. And they tell us there will be disasters. But we should have thought about it first, right?
The perspective of Stellantis and Tavarez is that of "The worse, the better". When consumers find themselves having to deal with cars, even internal combustion ones, that are much more expensive due to the sanctions imposed for the failure to sell electric cars, then they will rebel. Renault and VW, i.e. ACEA, should have thought about it first and opposed the car regulations. Instead, at the time, they applauded the most foolish Gretinism.
Stellantis, which underperformed in the first half of the year, insists it is ready for any eventuality, with a strengthening of its electric range underway and a range of 30 hybrid models across its 15 brands by the end of 2024.
Furthermore, the Group " has made the ethical decision not to purchase credits" (which allow the most polluting producers to form alliances with the least polluting ones, such as Tesla), " because we believe we must make a real contribution to reducing emissions ", he said. declared.
But even Tavarez, given his 34 million a year remuneration, still has to answer to someone, specifically the shareholders, and if they see too many losses and little profit they might also get annoyed by his rigidity and think that it's time to change strategy and be a little more practical and a little less moralistic.
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The article Stellantis declares war on other European car manufacturers and immediately wants stricter CO2 regulations. Why? comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/stellantis-dichiara-guerra-alle-altre-case-automobilistiche-europee-e-vuole-subito-le-norme-piu-severe-sul-co2-perche/ on Mon, 16 Sep 2024 10:00:10 +0000.