Europe driving its automotive industry towards a dead end

“Europe is driving its automotive industry towards a dead end. Today’s decision on banning combustion engines will make new cars more expensive, cost thousands of jobs and lead to the decline of a core European industry”, said Jens Gieseke MEP, the EPP Group negotiator on the new rules for the reduction of CO2 from new cars and vans, ahead of today’s plenary vote.

The new law includes a ban on sales of new cars with combustion engines from 2035, something the EPP Group opposes.

“Parliament has missed the last exit. Europe says goodbye to combustion engines from 2035, forcing people to go for one particular technology, instead of using innovation and science in finding the most efficient way to reduce CO2 emissions”, Gieseke stressed.

“The Greens, Social Democrats and Liberals have pushed through their dangerous and anti-innovation line. Their promise that new jobs would be created is not working. On the contrary, new battery productions are being established in Canada and the USA and hundreds of thousands of jobs in Europe are now at risk. Moreover, their favourite argument of the cost-effectiveness of e-cars no longer holds water either because of high electricity prices and expiring purchase premiums”, underlined Gieseke.

“Furthermore, with today’s proposal on emission standards for heavy-duty vehicles, the European Commission is finally backing down from its banning ideology. The Social Democratic Vice-President Timmermans has apparently not been able to get his way. This is a success for all those who have been campaigning for technological openness in recent months”, Gieseke explained.

The fields of application for heavy commercial vehicles are so diverse that a one-sided bet on pure electromobility cannot work. Competition is needed to find the smartest and most efficient solutions. What remains, however, is still a proposal with very ambitious reduction targets, which are a major challenge for the industry”, Gieseke said.

“The Commission continues to ignore the potential of synthetic fuels and does not attach any particular importance to them. This is negligent. At least on the subject of eTrailers, the Commission wants to recognise the potential added value of such developments. That is a good signal. European companies are particularly active here”, added Gieseke.