BRUSSELS, Feb 8 (Reuters) – Car sales in the European Union (EU) are expected to rise 7.9% this year on easing semiconductor supply problems, but will remain a few 20% to 2019 pre-pandemic levels, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) said on Tuesday.
The association, which represents the 16 major carmakers based in Europe, said this would follow a 2.4% decline in 2021 due to a shortage of semiconductors, particularly in the second half of the year. ‘last year.
ACEA’s forecast comes on a day when the European Commission is due to present its “Chips Act” plan, which aims to promote research and production of semiconductors in Europe and reduce dependence on a a single country or a single region.
ACEA estimates that the supply of chips should stabilize in 2022, which should allow passenger car registrations in the European Union to reach 10.5 million units.
The association also warned of the too slow pace of deployment of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, which now represent nearly one in five new cars sold in the EU.
“Electric car sales have increased more than 10 times between 2017 and 2021, while the number of public chargers in the EU has increased less than 2.5 times over the same period,” said Oliver Zipse, President of ACEA and Chairman of the Management Board of BMW.
“If this situation is not urgently remedied by introducing ambitious targets for all EU Member States, we will very quickly hit a roadblock.”
ACEA also called on the EU to strengthen its proposal for an alternative fuels infrastructure regulation to ensure that a sufficiently dense charging network is built. (Report Philip Blenkinsop, French version Khadija Adda-Rezig, edited by Blandine Hénault)
click here for restrictions
©2022 Reuters