Unsigned, the document emanates, Le Monde said on Saturday, from Renault and Luca de Meo, its boss who is also president of the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers in Brussels (ACEA), the sector's lobby with the EU.
According to the daily, “the objective of this document […] is to postpone from 2025 to 2027 the tightening of the so-called CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standard, which sets an average threshold of CO2 emissions for all vehicles sold, under penalty of fines.
“49.3 European”
To obtain this postponement, the text “pleads for the use of a little-known provision, Article 122.1 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), a kind of “European 49.3″, which would allow urgent postponement of the application of the regulations, bypassing the Strasbourg Parliament” , summarizes Le Monde.
To meet the new targets, manufacturers would have to sell, on average, one electric car for every four thermal vehicles, to offset the latter's excess greenhouse gas emissions.
However, the European electric market “has been stagnant for more than a year at less than 15% for cars and 7% for utility vehicles,” recalls the note cited by Le Monde.
Three scenarios
“Penalties could reach 13 billion euros for cars and 3 billion for commercial vehicles,” warns the document, which presents three future scenarios.
A first solution would be to cut production of thermal vehicles by more than two million units and van production by 700,000 units, “the equivalent of more than eight European factories”, with associated job losses.
“The second consists of concluding an agreement with American or Chinese manufacturers (Tesla, Volvo, a subsidiary of Geely or MG, for example) to buy carbon credits from them,” reports Le Monde. This solution would amount to subsidizing non-European competitors and in any case “would not be enough”, warns the document.
“The third option would be for states to increase subsidies for the purchase of electric vehicles, but do the opposite, or for manufacturers to lower prices to reach a 22% market share for electric vehicles,” writes Le World.