As We already fast-forwarded last week, the French government wants to limit aid for the purchase of electric cars to models produced in Europe. The president’s goal Emmanuel Macron is to boost the competitiveness of the local industry, which is threatened by the rise of manufacturers of Chinese origin.
Currently, electric vehicles sold in France can benefit from a state scholarship of 5,000 euros as long as its price is less than 47,000 euros and its weight is less than 2.4 tons, excluding high-end and/or large cars.
Given that restricting aid to electric cars according to their country of origin would infringe the rules of the WTO (World Trade Organization)Macron has proposed reserving them for those with a low carbon footprint (that is, they have been manufactured using mostly sustainable energies).
This would leave many models of Chinese origin out of the game, since The energy mix of the Asian country continues to depend to a large extent on coal. “We are going to support batteries and vehicles made in Europe because their carbon footprint is low; we are not going to use French taxpayers’ money to boost non-European industry”.
Chinese manufacturers plan to build their own factories in Europe
This measure, which Macron avoids calling him protectionistIt will be framed within the Green Industry bill, through which the authorities will seek to boost the native industry and generate 20,000 million euros in investments, as well as tens of thousands of jobs. “This funding framework should help us compete with the IRA (Inflation Reduction Act) of the Americans.”
This may make it necessary to relocate production of some electric cars, see the dacia spring, one of the main best sellers of the Renault Group. this urban low cost Today it is imported from China, although the latest rumors suggest that its next generation, scheduled for 2024, could be manufactured on European soil.
At the same time, the Chinese groups could be forced to speed up the construction of new plants in the old continent so as not to lose competitiveness. BYD, chery and Big Wall They are already evaluating different locations to build their next factories, which will start operating in the middle of the decade. Spain is positioned as one of the preferred options for many of them thanks, among other things, to the help of the PERTE of the Electric and Connected Vehicle.
Source | Automotive News Europe
