How car manufacturers try to avoid EU fines

The European car manufacturers – represented by Acea, the trade association – risk paying 16 billion euros of fines (13 billion for cars and 3 for vans) for the failure to reach the target of 20% of electric cars in 2025. In the context of strategic dialogue with the European Commission, producers to avoid this scenario presented two alternative proposals :

• The first (option A) is Calculate the 20% target of electric vehicles on 90% of vehicles sold for 2025 and 95% in 2026 (thus lowering the percentage)
• The second proposal (option B) is introduce a calculation on the average in the period 2025-2029so that the years to come can fill the 2025-2026 gap. The European Commission which – according to the Acea – is showing openness to find solutions, had established an average of 25% as a target of the electricity in the period 2025-2029; Then 60-75% in the period 2030-2034 and 100% zero emissions from 2035

At present, the car manufacturers who have committed themselves to investing 250 billion euros in zero -emission mobilization from here to 2030 and which already put 370 battery electric models on the market, of which sixteen below 30 thousand euros, yes they face four scenarios.

• The first is payment of finesestimated precisely in 16 billion euros, with the risk of diverting their funds intended for decarbonisation.
• The second scenario is Cut the production of combustion engines (The basis of calculating the percentage of electric) and for Acea this would involve a reduction in the production of over 2 million motor cars and 700 thousand vans, which would be equivalent to the closure of eight factories and the consequent loss of jobs.
• The third scenario is that of Pooling, or the alliance of European producers with non-EU companies which produce only electric by purchasing to share the target percentages (upon payment of course). Two have already been established: Stellantis, Toyota, Ford, Mazda and Subaru with Tesla; Mercedes and Volvo with Polestar. For Acea, this solution does nothing but strengthen direct non-EU competitors.
• Finally, the fourth scenario is that of sell electric cars at a price lower than the production costbringing a serious distortion of the market.

For Acea, the failure to achieve the objectives of electric shares in sales derives in particular from market difficulties independent of the producers (see for example the cut of incentives) but also from the defraunning deficiencies for charging. The European Commission has established a objective of 3.5 million charging points by 2030 but the Acea estimates that 8.8 million will be needed. At the annual level, the commission’s goal was 410 thousand (for ACEA 1.2 million) but in 2024 only 213 thousand were made.