- “The use of things like low carbon steel in a car can play a role. All these elements are being assessed currently, and what I can commit is that the Commission is committed to the principle of technological neutrality. You will then see on the 10th of December how exactly this is reflected in the Commission's proposal. But we are committed to technological neutrality. And finally, the final element of the package on the 10th of December is simplification. We will come with an automotive omnibus package in order to reduce unnecessary regulatory burden for the automotive industry, which is in a very complex regulatory framework. But even beyond this automotive omnibus package. Then in December, the simplification efforts will, of course, continue. We will have next year an evaluation of the Motor Vehicle Type approval framework and will in that context, also look of course at simplification. One final point looking ahead to the future. For the competitiveness in the next decades, an important element will be automation. And this is where we are preparing the ground. Now that we have by next year a full fledged regulatory framework for driverless vehicles in the EU. And we are in the process of establishing cross-border testbeds with member states to allow the large scale early commercial deployment of fully automated vehicles. And we count on Parliament's support for these initiatives. Thank you.”
Road transport environmental policy
- “We need to boost the value and we need to boost the volumes. So first on the value chain, we will come with the battery booster, as announced in the Automotive Action Plan in March, which will include a combination of measures when it comes to financing of the battery value chain in Europe. We also have already on the upstream side 32 critical raw materials strategic projects in Europe and ten outside the EU, which are focused on battery raw materials because we need to build up the whole battery value chain to remove the dependencies there. We have in September already launched the so-called European Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Alliance, with the goal to build in Europe the capacities that also some of the members have already mentioned on electronics, software, defined vehicles, artificial intelligence, and these are the industrial capacities we need to build to be able to compete in the future. And we are also aware that we cannot do everything on our own. We need the know how outside Europe, but for this we also need to. When attracting foreign investment, we need to maximize the benefit, the spillovers for the European economy. So we will come with conditionalities on foreign direct investment.”
Sustainability of batteries regulation · Sourcing of critical raw materials · EU policy on screening foreign investment in strategic sectors and critical infrastructure
- “So we sell 2.7 million less than five years ago. And of course, this has an impact on the utilization of the manufacturing capacities. It has an impact, unfortunately, on jobs. The second structural shift is that there is a transformation in the value chain. We have a very strong automotive supply chain in Europe, but an increasing share of the value comes from things like the batteries, the electronics, the software. And in these sectors we are not leading. And we simply in the last weeks have seen the supply chain crisis after the nexperia blockage, how it affects our automotive industry. We have these dependencies on third countries, on these new elements of the automotive value chain. And while looking at the traditional automotive components, as I said, we are world leading. We have a trade surplus of €10 billion for what we traditionally saw as automotive components. If we include batteries and electronics, we have actually a negative trade balance. And the third trend in Christopher referred to that already. We have a cost disadvantage in Europe, manufacturing costs is more than 30% higher than in China and other low cost countries. And this puts hundreds of thousands. And one study says 300,000 jobs at risk in the coming years. All of these three structural challenges are independent on the powertrain. Let's be clear on that. But these fundamental challenges are at the core of the automotive action plan and of the automotive package that will be presented on the 10th of December.”
Due diligence in supply chains (environmental and human rights) · Sourcing of critical raw materials
- “So there is a demand side, but it also helps to get volumes back and fill better the capacities that we have in European manufacturing, both for the car manufacturers but also for the whole supply chain. And of course, then the regulatory framework, we need to make it profitable to invest and to build cars in Europe. And of course, the CO2 standards play a role there. We had immediately after the automotive action plan in spring, the flexibility for 2025 so that we maintain the investment capacity of our industry and avoid penalties or pooling arrangements for this year. And on the 10th of December, we will come up with the revision, the Commission's proposal for the revision of the CO2 standards. Of course, I cannot answer directly on the questions raised on what will be there, but I can tell you what is being assessed, and I think it was also a clear in the documents shared by the president for the Strategic Dialogue on the future of the Automotive industry in September, in the impact assessment for the revision, of course, we need to look at the potential role of renewable fuels. We need to look at such technological developments like plug in hybrids with an extended range range extender vehicles and also other factors. European preference was clearly mentioned by the European Council.”
Road transport environmental policy
- “Thank you. So as as a general comment and of course, here the house is clearly divided and we are committed to technology neutrality. But let's not fall in the trap of thinking that maintaining the internal combustion engine will solve the problems of the automotive industry. As I said in the very beginning, actually, our industry is exporting more electric vehicles than we import. When we look at the Chinese imports, they are not all electric vehicles. We import a lot of hybrid vehicles coming from China because the Chinese have also cost advantages on the internal combustion engines. Now, more specifically to some of the comments, uh, raised, the small Affordable Cars initiative is not meant as a planned economy. We will not prescribe the manufacturers what they should produce, but we want to allow them to produce profitably small cars in Europe. So improving the business case for the manufacturers then, and several members have raised the issue around the rare earths, uh, strategic autonomy and Technological sovereignty and before the automotive package. We will also have an economic security package in early December, which will have very specific measures. Then when it comes to rare earths and things like that. Now, uh. The, uh, and many of the points actually come also back to what I said earlier, the automotive supply chain.”
Road transport environmental policy · Sourcing of critical raw materials
- “The fourth pillar of our discussions, also in a strategic dialogue with uh, EVP Min Sato, uh, had was around the the whole social dimension. And as you know, there are a lot of job losses in the sectors, especially in the in the different suppliers. And so the obvious elements were discussed with social uh, stakeholders, uh, in, in that strategic dialogue that she had uh, with them. That was the whole issue around skilling and reskilling of workers. Uh, how to attract people to the sector, how to train them, how to, uh, retrain them so that they also are able to work in, in a context where, for instance, you have to deal with, uh, electric vehicles maintenance, which of course is different. So how to train these people? But also, if one of the requests from the social, uh, stakeholders was around, the need to ensure that also the we, the, the companies can have access to the European Globalisation Fund adjustment fund earlier because if people are, ah, to lose their job, that they could have access also to funding to actually train them so that they can find a job in another sector. And so there were plenty of parallels that were made with sectors similar to the automotive one, and how we could, uh, assist them in, uh, in, in that regard. So that's basically the fourth pillar that what we have developed. And of course, the fifth pillar is about, uh, boosting market access. And uh, that's a whole level playing field trade dimension. And over in the meantime, it's been a bit overtaken by the US tariff discussion. But it's also it was not only linked to that, it's certainly the market access for European, uh, common factors abroad, from free trade agreements to uh, technical barriers to, to trade. But it's also how to ensure a level playing field also about the foreign investments in the EU and on which grounds they should be allowed, not allowed. The whole local content requirements dimension that that came with Made in Europe production. So that was basically the fifth pillar of the automotive action plan.”
Funding for vocational training · EU policy on screening foreign investment in strategic sectors and critical infrastructure · European Globalisation Adjustment Fund
- “Thank you. Uh, I'll try to answer the remaining questions. The first thing that I want to say here, there's no charging infrastructure issue in the EU. We have something called alternative fuels infrastructure regulation and which has dynamic targets of more EV registrations. The more charging points you have. So if you take the last four years, you had an increase of 183% of electric vehicles, registration 183. You had an increase of 184% of charging points in the EU because it's part of a regulation. But the most important is that actually the energy output of these charging stations has been plus 262%. Which also shows that our charging stations are faster and more powerful. And it's very important. So there's no charging infrastructure. 26 out of 27 member states meet their offer target only one which I will not name here, but um, and next year we will have enough for review. And we will also see whether we need to change these targets. And that's true for electric and that's true for also hydrogen. And so we have 269 refueling stations for hydrogen in Europe. And uh but then comes the question do we have the right demand. And that's to answer the question on the on trucks that I've heard the electric trucks are coming. I mean, yesterday there was an ACI event, uh, they all invest in electric in hydrogen. And so the electric trucks are coming and and you have different models. You have the electric trucks you have if I take the example of of man. We also have a hybrid one where it's electric. And then you have uh, you have also, uh, the possibility to, to have a diesel engine that will recharge the electric battery while it's driving so that we can get an extended range of that track.”
Road transport environmental policy · EV charging infrastructure
- “And so good morning everyone. So the second pillar and it's logical is also the the twin transition and other challenges that we face in general with transport and mobility. So digitalization is one and of course sustainability is the other. Uh, when we did of course, the automotive action plan, uh, everybody had in mind the, the CO2 standards, the potential fines that some of the OEMs would have to pay. So of course, the emission standards was a big portion of, uh, of that pillar that we had to deal with. But I would say it's in a way anecdotal because, um, of course, we had to address, uh, an immediate need, which was the potential, potential fines that some of our car manufacturers would face. But in general, it was also to to launch a debate around the the emission standards for vehicles. And so we first addressed it by having these flexibilities, uh, for, uh, the calculation of CO2 emissions over three years, uh, instead of one that you have approved, but also to engage the debate around the emission standards and the revision that our colleagues from DG clima are going to do in the coming months. The second pillar that came clear during the different discussions that our commissioners had with stakeholders was the need for to boost demand for zero emissions. And that's over. That's linked from the social dimension, but also the enabling factors that you have around that. And that's the whole part on the recharging and the infrastructure where you need to ensure that we have enough, uh, charging infrastructure for, uh, light duty vehicles, but in particular for, uh, heavy duty vehicles, as you know, the CO2 emission standards, uh, reduction kick in for trucks only in 2030. But we need to make sure that we have overwrite infrastructure on time so that the uptake of these electric trucks and hydrogen trucks, uh, is, uh, matched with, uh, enough recharging and refuelling stations. So that's the second pillar of what we have focused. And we'll be happy to take on questions around that.”
Road transport environmental policy · EV charging infrastructure
- “Thank you. Very much. Uh, and before going to the actions of the automotive Action plan of the commission and the automotive package that will come in December this year, I would like to start with some facts on the industry, because, of course, the industry is in a very difficult situation. There are thousands of job cuts with very worrying consequences in the regions for the citizens. But it's not that the industry is completely doomed. So let's look at some figures. The market share of the EU common effectors in the EU is actually stable at 70%. The rise of the Chinese brands basically has damaged the Tesla, but the European manufacturers have a stable market share. If you look at the top ten electric vehicles sold on the European market this year, nearly all of them are made in Europe, and we have a strong trade surplus on electric vehicles, exporting €38 billion and importing only €24 billion. But of course, the industry is in a profound structural shift, and there are three trends that are really affecting the European automotive industry. And some of them have already been mentioned by some of the MEPs here in the discussion. First, there is a structural trend towards lower volume sales in the European Union. Last year was the best year for car sales since 2019, but it was 12.6 million. In 2019 it was 15 million.”
Road transport environmental policy
- “So the trucks are coming. It's just that the targets for the CO2 emissions kick in in 2030. So these models are coming. And for me, there's no charging infrastructure issue for light duty vehicles over towns above 100,000 people are also concerned by this legislation. What we have an issue and what we need to invest you money in the next years is to have a charging infrastructure for trucks, because they are coming to the market, and we will need to have them, uh, to have all these charging stations. And you will see something coming from the commission in September, called Clean Transport Corridor Initiative, where we are working with other regions along Ten-t corridors to identify all the existing gaps in terms of charging infrastructure for trucks. And we will dedicate all our financing through the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure facility just on HGV. So that's something that I wanted to say I had. There was a question about social and and and skills and isn't it a member state competence? Yes it is. So there was an exchange also of best practices that was discussed in the session sectoral session that EVP means that we had um, so that's the member states competence social. Yes. It's expensive and we need to favour, uh, cheaper models. And so that's why we looked at the social leasing. Ideally I would have liked personally to that we have a European social leasing scheme. We don't. But many member states do. I mean, France just adopted it yesterday for the next years to come. So you have some good examples also.”
Road transport environmental policy · EV charging infrastructure
- “There are also several actions that need to be taken on the energy side. So to have much better connections to the grid for the charging infrastructure. And this is in particular crucial for the heavy duty vehicles, the trucks that need to have then fast charging during the driver's resting time. And we have recently agreed with several member states on green transport corridors, where there will be accelerated permitting for such a fast track, stations for electric trucks. And in general, of course, the heavy duty vehicles, lorries and buses. And they are an integral part of the whole automotive action. Sometimes we talk about cars, but we always need to have the full industry in mind. And it is particularly the buses where the Chinese competition is. Yeah, the most difficult one where the market share for electric buses is already at 20%. So we need to defend the European industry. Final point then maybe on the European Competitiveness Fund. And there of course, it is at this stage far too early to determine how this can be best used for the European automotive industry, as the whole MFF package, of course, is in discussions here with the co-legislators. I think those were the main questions that came up in the second round. Thanks.”
Road transport environmental policy · EV charging infrastructure
- “Absolutely. And this is the value that we need to maintain in Europe. And this is why we want to propose European preference requirements made in Europe so that we can maintain the supply chain in Europe, which is where really the jobs are created for our citizens and the value added in the car. We don't want simply the car to be designed and maybe final assembly in Europe, but really the value should come from Europe and this is why we need to focus on innovation on these things like software, electronics, the battery value chain, so that we can keep and increase the European value in the vehicles. Circularity indeed was mentioned also very important point we have in Trilogues currently the regulation on the end of life of vehicles. So this will also be an important measure to really include circularity already in the vehicle design, which helps to then reduce also the need for primary raw materials from outside Europe. On the price transparency and let's say user friendliness of the charging infrastructure of course. And this is an important element where we will look at in the review of the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation next year to increase further the price transparency for the users.”
"Buy European" provisions · Preferential treatment for made in EU cars and components · Circular economy
- “The second element, and that was also mentioned by several of the members. We need to maintain the value in Europe. If taxpayers money is involved for the purchase of electric vehicles, we need to maximise the value in Europe. So we will come in the Industrial Accelerator Act with EU preference criteria to make sure that the vehicles that are purchased are actually made in Europe. The second element then is really the the volume. And there the automotive package in December will include the greening corporate fleets proposal to boost the uptake of zero emission vehicles by corporate buyers. A large share, of course, is really in the hands of the member states. Incentives, purchase incentives, social leasing schemes. As announced in the Automotive Action Plan, they are important to boost the uptake of zero emission vehicles, and it's for the implementation by the member states to take such actions. Then the president has announced that the state of the Union speech this small affordable cars initiative. And indeed and this is important to get volumes back in the manufacturing I mentioned that since 2019, we have 2.7 million lower volume sales in Europe. Small cars account for 1.6 million of that. So we've lost in the small car segment what we call A and B segment of cars 1.8 million sales per year. If we can bring back these small cars, they are affordable for the citizens.”
Road transport environmental policy · "Buy European" provisions · Preferential treatment for made in EU cars and components
- “But it's it's member states that have to drive it. What we can do though is to work on the second hand market, and we will come up with a legislation. Actually, the same day that we adopted the Automotive Action Plan, we also adopted the communication on greening corporate fleet. And so corporate fleets represent 60% of, of of vehicle registration. So they are very important for the second hand market. And that's partly to answer a question about affordability and also for consumers. And if we work on that second hand market then on on that on the company's corporate fleets, then we will also create a second hand market for, for consumers to buy cheaper models. I want to echo the chair on on on your comment about that. The OEMs were probably sleepy. I would echo that, but I wouldn't be as grim. Of course, we had to be grim because we wanted to have some exemptions and wanted to paint another picture. But, uh, our European car manufacturers. Yes, we were sleepy at first. Yes, we were a bit naive, I think on on some of the third countries that you have mentioned. But we are catching up very quickly and the prices are decreasing. That's still too expensive. But the the models that are about to come on the market between this year and in two years time, you will start to have affordable models for less than €20,000 made in Europe by European car manufacturers. And that's why we wanted also to give them that flexibility with these three years on the CO2, because we wanted these kind of models to count. Um, Yeah, that's basically what I wanted to mention. Thank you.”
Road transport environmental policy · Ecodesign & durability