Automotive suppliers are going bankrupt almost every week. The EU Commission is using stalling tactics until the last companies in the combustion engine industry have been driven out of business. There is no sign of any concessions on the ICE ban and the fleet limits.
Not only the content, but also the wording of the press release from January 30, 2025 is revealing (quotes are in italics): “The European automotive and supplier industry is undergoing a profound and transformative change.”
Transformative change refers to the switch to battery-electric cars.
Now it is a matter of “facilitating the green transition and streamlining legislation and identifying areas where more concrete measures are needed.”
Streamlining legislation?! Even more concrete measures?!
Do they want to force the car industry even faster to produce only hard-to-sell products (e-cars)?
“The fundamental question we need to answer together is what we still miss to unleash the innovative power of our companies …”
From the point of view of these bureaucrats, the companies in this sector have only themselves to blame for their crisis – they should have unleashed their innovative strength in good time.
“EU Commissioner for Climate Action, Net Zero Emissions and Clean Growth Wopke Hoekstra will focus on the clean transition of the automotive sector.”
Hoekstra will put those who don’t get on track on the right path.
“President von der Leyen has tasked Commissioner Tzitzikostas to present an Action Plan on the 5th of March.“
Certainly a good choice from the point of view of the EU Commission, as an article in ams on 7.11.24 shows: *2
“New EU Transport Commissioner sticks to the end of combustion engines – Apostolos Tzitzikostas is to head the EU Commission’s transport and tourism department. At his presentation, the Greek clearly committed to electromobility.”
In the USA, the electric car has languished with a market share of less than 10 percent, even under Biden. Now Trump will pull the subsidy plug on e-mobility. In Europe, sales fell last year. Even in China, sales of PHEVs are growing faster than BEVs.
The German automotive industry, which was already suffering from overcapacity, was plunged into a particularly severe crisis by the EU Commission’s regulatory mania and forced to invest enormous resources in a niche product (electric cars) without having reached the profit zone yet. At the same time, the combustion engine, the only product with which it was the world leader, was taken away from it.
The fact that bureaucrats can presume to impose technology bans and prohibitions by law and undermine market forces is an epidemic, especially in Europe, with fatal economic consequences. Apart from Ed Milliband in the UK (a kind of Robert Habeck on steroids and British Minister for Energy Security and CO2 Emissions) only the EU Commission worldwide is hell-bent on destroying the combustion engine industry. So far, absolutely nothing has changed on this course.
* 1 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_25_378
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