Auto, because the French government buffers Euro7
France has joined a letter signed by 8 EU countries against the Euro 7. Now the Economy Minister has uttered unequivocal sentences: "Useless, China and the USA do not adopt anything like this"
Closing your eyes, it might seem that those words, unusually harsh towards Euro 7 and, therefore, towards one of the key proposals of Ursula von der Leyen 's "green" Commission, were pronounced by any Tavares , or an Acea spokeperson, the builders association. Instead, French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire pronounced them.
WHAT THEY SAY IN FRANCE ABOUT THE EURO 7
We are referring to assertions such as that Euro 7 "will cost our car manufacturers useless money" and that it would be better "to devote the same money to accelerating the electric vehicles and technologies of tomorrow"
These are not sentences of circumstance, pronounced so as not to dissatisfy the blue-collar audience at Douvrin, where the minister went on the occasion of the inauguration of the Automotive cell company's electric battery gigafactory , a joint venture between Stellantis, Mercedes, and TotalEnergies , because the gap between the industrial policy beyond the Alps and the Community one, which has accelerated the ban on endothermics and, at the same time, wanted to bring home the rules on Euro 7, had already been dug in recent days by the French executive which signed together with Italy, Bulgaria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary a letter of complaints sent to the rotating presidency of the European Union against the constraints of Euro 7.
THE CHARGE OF THE 8 EU AGAINST THE EURO 7
The eight governments write that they oppose "any new exhaust emission standards (including new testing requirements or new emission limits) for cars and vans as these new standards would divert industry investment away from achieving the net-zero transition path." established in the recently adopted CO2 emission regulation”.
For Le Maire «The Euro 7 regulation is useless, we must not spend money, billions, on regulations that China and the USA do not impose on their manufacturers». It is the same alarm raised by the manufacturers' association according to which Euro 7 could quadruple (if not tenfold) the production costs of vehicles compared to the European Commission's estimates.
WHAT THE ACEA SAYS
On the basis of the calculations elaborated by the consultancy firm Frontier Economics, there is a risk of extra costs which would range from 2,000 euros for light vehicles up to 12,000 euros for heavy ones and we would therefore be close to an explosion of costs four to ten times higher than the calculations of Brussels in the impact assessments of the new legislation, quantified at 180-450 euros for cars and vans and 2,800 euros for trucks and buses.
There is also a possible paradox to take into consideration, namely that Euro 7 is likely to lead to 3.5% higher fuel consumption over its entire life cycle. For Frontier Economics, the installation of catalysts will require additional fuel to improve heating when starting the vehicle: the environment will be worse off, as will the wallets of motorists who will have to face an additional annual cost of 650 euros. And the price of the vehicles themselves could increase, considering the possible increase in production costs, with the end user having to pay for it again.
ALL THE PUFFS AGAINST EURO 7
Thierry Breton , commissioner for the single market, had called the proposal "balanced and necessary to protect the climate". The automotive world, on the other hand, seems to have a very different opinion. According to chairman Oliver Zipse who is also CEO of BMW. “The automotive industry takes its role of reducing both CO2 and polluting emissions very seriously, but unfortunately, the environmental benefit of the Commission's proposal is very limited, while it heavily increases the cost of vehicles”.
Let's not forget that shortly after the presentation of the Commission's proposal, the social twitter of Martin Sander , chairman of the board of directors of the German Ford-Werke GmbH and head of the automobile business in Europe, had arrived: "Disappointed by the Euro 7 standard proposed for internal combustion engines . Let's stop diverting resources towards a technology of the past and instead invest in zero emissions"
According to Martin Lundstedt , number 1 of the Volvo Group: “To comply with Euro VII, manufacturers of vans and trucks will have to divert significant financial and engineering resources from electric and fuel cell vehicles to those with internal combustion engines. This will severely impact our transition to zero emission vehicles. It's not good for the climate, or for people's health, or for industry. Policy makers – he accused – should focus on rules that accelerate fleet renewal, giving priority to investments in zero-emission vehicles that will have a much greater impact on air quality and reduced CO2 emissions.
The German Auto Manufacturers Association, the VDA, is also furious for which “the development and approval of an appropriate path with a deadline of just one year from the expected completion of the delegated acts is absolutely not possible.”
For Aecc, the association of catalyst producers, "It would be a pity if delays in the adoption process were to lead to delays in the application of the rules and in the contribution to improving air quality". Judgment of lights and lights by Clepa, which brings together the supply chain at European level. In the note she talks about a "step forward" but is rather perplexed by the fact that the technical details to allow the development and testing of new technologies have not yet been disclosed. In short, everyone agrees on the fact that the community law arrived late and now wants to make up for lost time on the skin of the car industry.
The Commission seems to have succeeded in disappointing everyone, even environmentalists. The association of green NGOs Transport & Environment has in fact accused the EU executive of "having given priority to the profit of the manufacturers and has failed in the historical objective of reducing the toxic pollution of cars and commercial vehicles, supporting the car lobbies to greenwash the 100 million cars that will be sold in the ten years leading up to 2035. It is therefore crucial that the European Parliament strengthens these incredibly weak standards or simply rejects them.”
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/auto-perche-il-governo-francese-tampona-leuro7/ on Wed, 31 May 2023 04:42:14 +0000.