Brussels urged not to U-turn on car CO2 limits amid industry ‘crisis’

An EU push for electric vehicles won’t existentially threaten the bloc’s car industry, the electricity sector has told Members of the European Parliament in a briefing dated Monday (7 October).  

The counter-lobby is pushing back against efforts to weaken CO2 emissions limits that carmakers say are impossible to meet, as MEPs prepare to discuss a “crisis” facing the automotive sector in a Tuesday debate.  

“Although these heightened concerns are understandable with current market headwinds and increasing foreign competition, the policy focus has wrongfully shifted onto potentially relaxing the regulation on CO2 standards for cars and vans,” the trade association Eurelectric wrote in a briefing note sent to MEPs, seen by Euronews.  

Brussels is seeking to entirely phase out petrol and diesel cars as it seeks to limit climate change. As part of that plan, the legal limit for cars' CO2 emissions is due to fall by nearly a fifth to under 94 grams per kilometre next year — a deadline the car industry now says it cannot meet due to a dip in electric sales. 

The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), backed up by the centre-right European People’s Party, has called for unspecified emergency “relief” from the substantial fines that carmakers, who had five years to prepare for the new limits, now face.  

They want a regulatory review to be brought forward to early next year, instead of the existing planned date of 2026. 

But the electricity lobby argues that acquiescing to those demands would “wrongfully call into question existing CO2 emission targets”, thereby “encouraging automakers to continue holding off on the lower-priced and smaller EV [electric vehicle] models”. 

Eurelectric accused the car industry of prioritising larger and expensive electric models costing around €40,000, and “encouraging consumers to purchase their cheaper hybrid and ICE [internal combustion engine] models that manufacturers will not be able to sell later down the line”. 

A spokesperson for the Commission, which recently announced a one-year delay to anti-deforestation rules following industry pressure, said the EU executive’s priority was “ensuring that those targets are met