{"id":261386,"date":"2025-11-04T16:18:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T16:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/261386\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T16:18:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T16:18:11","slug":"car-bosses-pledge-bigger-investment-in-europe-if-petrol-ban-is-relaxed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/261386\/","title":{"rendered":"Car bosses pledge bigger investment in Europe if petrol ban is relaxed"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Stellantis chief executive Antonio Filosa has pledged to multiply investment in Europe if Brussels relaxes its 2035 ban on petrol engines and follows the US in giving \u201cfreedom\u201d to consumers to buy any car they want.<\/p>\n

In a joint interview with the Financial Times, Ola K\u00e4llenius, head of European car industry body Acea and the chief executive of Mercedes-Benz, also warned that the European Commission would be making \u201ca catastrophic mistake\u201d if the automotive market shrank further as a result of forcing the industry to sell only EVs.<\/p>\n

Unlike in China and the US, car production in Europe remains significantly below pre-pandemic levels with Stellantis temporarily pausing production across the continent in October because of sluggish demand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there is a change which is big and urgent in regulation, obviously we will multiply our investment\u201d in Europe, Filosa said. \u201cWhat the example of the US shows is that when there is reasonable change in regulation that gives back\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009freedom of choice\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009automakers see there is growth,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Under President Donald Trump, the US has ended credits for EV purchases and is proposing to roll back rules to reduce vehicle emissions. Stellantis has pledged to invest<\/a> a record $13bn in the US over the next four years to counter Trump\u2019s US tariffs but also to expand sales of petrol and hybrid vehicles, which are more profitable than electric cars.<\/p>\n

By contrast, investment is lower in Europe because of high production and labour costs as well as weak consumer demand. This week, Stellantis<\/a> said its investments in France would total \u20ac2bn in 2025, while it has also promised a similar size investment in Italy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could now make a catastrophic mistake\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009to make the market small,\u201d\u00a0warned K\u00e4llenius on the EU\u2019s vehicle emission policy. <\/p>\n

The European car industry now sells 3mn less vehicles than before the pandemic, which Filosa said was equivalent to the output from 10 car plants.<\/p>\n

The car industry bosses warned that recent chip shortages linked to Dutch chipmaker Nexperia<\/a> and the disruption caused by China\u2019s export controls on rare earths had once again exposed the vulnerability of Europe\u2019s industrial chains and the dangers of shifting to a technology where Beijing had control over the supply chains. \u201cWe will have more [crises] if we don\u2019t build our autonomy,\u201d Filosa added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Volkswagen<\/a> and other carmakers had warned that plants in Europe could be shut down imminently because of chip shortages caused by the dispute with China over the Dutch takeover of control in Nexperia. <\/p>\n

While China has now agreed to allow some Nexperia chips to be shipped out of the country, industry executives are worried that the approval process could be lengthy and require the submission of sensitive information to Chinese authorities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Brussels has already eased rules<\/a> that set out company specific emissions reduction targets for 2025, allowing carmakers to spread out their compliance with the rules over three years.<\/p>\n

The commission is also bringing forward a review of the 2035 ban to December but even if the regulations were to be eased further, carmakers have argued that the changes would not be implemented quickly and drastically enough for Europe to remain competitive against China and the US.<\/p>\n

Speaking at an industry event in Paris on Tuesday, recently appointed Renault chief executive Fran\u00e7ois Provost also called for a rethink of the \u201ctsunami\u201d of regulations from Brussels that had made vehicles heavier and more expensive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need advances before the end of the year, without it we are orchestrating the decline of the car industry\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009It\u2019s not too late. It\u2019s possible but we need urgency,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Electric vehicles myFT Digest — delivered directly to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-261386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}