It is an impressive delegation that the European automobile lobby had gathered, this May 13, 2020, in Europe still confined. The CEOs of Fiat Chrysler, Jaguar Land Rover, Scania AB, Volkswagen and many other industry leaders had gathered for a videoconference which they hoped could help support their industry, battered by the travel restrictions. According to the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers (ACEA), the closure of car factories has, in fact, led to a loss of production of 2.4 million vehicles in the first six months of 2020, with a drop in sales of over 95% in major EU markets.
On May 13, 2020, the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, as well as Frans Timmermans, in charge of the Green Pact for Europe, were there to listen to the complaints of manufacturers. At that time, the European Union (EU) was about to unveil the largest recovery plan in its history, dubbed the Recovery and Resilience Facility (FRR), of 723.8 billion euros. With this money largely borrowed on the financial markets, the European Commission hopes both to help the European economy recover from the pandemic and to ensure that member states invest in the ecological and digital transition.
Plug-in hybrids
During the videoconference, the bosses of the automotive industry get their message across: considerable support will be needed for them to be able to reopen their production sites and maintain jobs. In return, they promise to accelerate the “greening” of the sector, in favor of which their commitments were hitherto still timid. At the Glasgow climate summit in November 2021, Volkswagen, Renault and even BMW estimated that they would still be selling fossil fuel cars in 2040, highlighting the uncertainties regarding “the development of a global infrastructure to support a full shift to zero-carbon vehicles”, in the words of a BMW representative in the FinancialTimes from November 8, 2021.
Manufacturers, on the other hand, highlight plug-in hybrid vehicles, running on both fuel and electricity, as one of the solutions promoting the green transition. A vision shared by the Commission. German research foundation The Wuppertal Institute, which has assessed recovery programs in 17 member states, together with European climate think tank E3G, show that with total expenditure of €109 billion, the mobility sector accounts for the largest share of recovery investment in the EU. Of this amount, 23.1 billion euros are devoted to road transport and the automotive industry, including a significant share for hybrid vehicles.
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