On the eve of the European Commission’s presentation of the ‘automotive package’ (see EUROPE 13770/14), the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) set out its expectations at a press conference on Monday 15 December. It does not want a retrograde step on the ban on internal combustion engines, but measures to stimulate demand for ‘zero-emission’ heavy-duty vehicles.
“We have spent billions in not just these products but rebuilding our production systems committing to huge volumes of battery cells from our supply chain. But there has still been no uptick”, lamented Christian Levin, CEO of Scania and the TRATON Group, and current Chairman of ACEA’s Commercial Vehicle Board.
There are a number of reasons for this failure: the purchase price is too high, there is a lack of recharging infrastructure despite the ‘AFIR’ regulation (see EUROPE 13761/3), there has been a delay in revising energy taxation (see EUROPE 13751/14), and the exemption of ‘zero-emission’ heavy goods vehicles from road tolls has not been applied (see EUROPE 13739/30), and so on.
Karin Rådström, CEO of Daimler Truck, and Mr Levin’s future successor at ACEA, felt that free trade agreements should be encouraged to sell European heavy goods vehicles internationally. She also called for legislative simplification and a better link between CO2 emission regulations and favourable conditions.
Customers see electric commercial vehicles as less flexible and more risky, and ACEA would like the Commission to remedy this. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)