The European Union is lagging behind in its transition to zero emissions in the automotive industry, according to a report by the Transport & Mobility Leuven expert group, published on Tuesday 29 April. Not only is the European electricity grid not yet ready to handle the expected increase in electricity demand resulting from the electrification of the light vehicle fleet, but the uptake of these vehicles is insufficient.
At present, none of the European countries are meeting the target for solar panels. The Netherlands and Germany actually have the largest capacity, but most countries are far from the targets.
In terms of consumer take-up, the researchers focused on the availability and affordability of electric vehicles. The number of available models with a retail price below €30,000 has increased considerably between 2024 and 2025, from 7 to 15 vehicles. Two of these models even sell for less than €20,000. “This indicator, while still a small number of affordable vehicles on the market, is at least moving in the right direction”, commented expert Rosanne Vanpée.
However, adoption rates, i.e. the share of new zero-emission vehicles in total sales, are still far from the European target for 2035, particularly for light commercial vehicles (see EUROPE 13626/16).
Read the study: https://aeur.eu/f/gmf (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)