Because Uber, Volvo, Ikea and more insist on blocking petrol cars
A group of fifty companies, including Volvo, Uber and Ikea, have called on the EU not to back down on the ban on the sale of cars with combustion engines from 2035. Investments in electric vehicles, they say, need regulatory stability. But large vehicle manufacturers are not exposing themselves
A group of fifty companies – including the Swedish car manufacturer Volvo, the US transport company Uber, the Spanish energy company Iberdrola and the Swedish furniture company Ikea – has called on the European Union not to change the ban on car registration with internal combustion engine from 2035. According to them, the automotive sector needs certainties and regulatory stability to invest in the electrification of mobility.
THE OTHER SIGNATORS
In addition to the companies already mentioned, the declaration was signed – among others – also by Ayvens (car rental, French), Polestar (electric cars, Swedish: it is controlled by Volvo), Rivian (electric vans, US), Tesco (supermarkets , British), Maersk (maritime shipping, Danish).
VOLVO WANTS ELECTRIC, DESPITE EVERYTHING
Volvo CEO Jim Rowan said electrification is “the single most important action our industry can take to reduce its carbon footprint. The 2035 target is fundamental to align all stakeholders on this path and ensure European competitiveness."
Yet not even a month ago Volvo – the brand is controlled by the Chinese group Geely – made it known that it had given up on the goal of selling only electric vehicles by 2030. "We are firmly convinced that our future is electric", however, Rowan had specified .
“This appeal is a warning to consider the reasons and commitment of a large part of European industry, which believes in the transition, has invested and is investing to make it possible. His voice should not be ignored,” said Andrea Boraschi, director of Transport & Environment Italia, a grouping of European NGOs dealing with sustainable mobility.
AUTOMOTIVE MANUFACTURERS REMAIN SILENT
However, the declaration on maintaining the ban on the internal combustion engine was not signed by the main European car manufacturers, such as Volkswagen or Stellantis, which are going through a difficult moment: Volkswagen, for example, is considering the closure of some plants in Germany for the first time in its history; Yesterday Stellantis revised its economic forecasts for 2024 downwards .
Car sales in the European Union are declining. In August, registrations hit their lowest level in three years and sales of electric vehicles – in particular – plummeted by almost 44 percent year-on-year. Battery-powered cars still struggle to establish themselves on the mass market both due to their selling prices, which are on average higher than equivalent models with combustion engines, and due to the not always satisfactory distribution of charging points.
Acea, the association of European car manufacturers (of which Stellantis is not part), has suggested that European authorities review the rules on CO2 emissions at range level which will come into force in 2025: sales of electric cars they are too low and those who do not respect the new limits risk billions in fines.
Those in favor of banning the sale of petrol and diesel cars usually insist on two points. The first: transport has been the only sector in Europe whose emissions have grown rather than decreased over the last thirty years, therefore it is necessary to intervene to reverse the trend otherwise the bloc will not be able to respect its climate objectives. The second point is the alleged delay of European car manufacturers in adopting electric technologies which today would not allow them to produce vehicles at competitive prices.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/volvo-uber-ikea-divieto-auto-motore-endotermico/ on Tue, 01 Oct 2024 08:38:18 +0000.