Car, de Meo (Renault CEO) warns: 'EU industry risks 15 billion in fines'

European car manufacturers could face fines of EUR 15 billion if they fail to comply with EU regulations on CO2 emissions. Raising the alarm was Luca de Meo, CEO of the Renault group, in an interview in France Inter. The manager, who is also president of the European Association of Automobile Manufacturers (Acea), called for 'a little flexibility', especially in the face of the slowdown in the market for electric vehicles in the Old Continent.

To meet the standards, manufacturers would have to reduce their production by 'more than 2.5 million vehicles', de Meo said. The low emissions of electric models can compensate for the share of as many as four combustion cars, but the sector is still too weak at the moment. In August, electric cars accounted for only 12.5 per cent of the total number of cars put on the market, with sales down 10.8 per cent year-on-year. Therefore, 'simply imposing deadlines and fines without being able to make things more flexible is very dangerous,' explained Renault's CEO. What penalises the electric sector is the slow installation of charging points and 'uncertainty' about purchase subsidies. The automotive industry 'needs stability, visibility' and 'a certain degree of consistency' when it comes to these funds, de Meo explained.

However, the manager reassured on Renault's resilience, also in the light of the crisis experienced by its competitor Volkswagen: 'A few years ago,' he said, 'we had to go on a very hard diet' by reducing production capacity 'by more than a million vehicles'. Although 'the context is very, very complicated', there should be no plant closures, de Meo concluded.

In recent days, there have been many worrying signs for the automotive industry: Volkswagen for the first time spoke explicitly about possible plant closures in Germany, recalling how demand for cars in Europe has not recovered from the Covid pandemic, with deliveries down by around two million units: 'Volkswagen alone has lost sales of around 500,000 cars, the equivalent of around two plants,' said finance director Arno Antlitz meeting with workers at the Wolfsburg plant.

At the same time, Volvo also announced that it had abandoned its goal of selling only electric cars by 2030 in the face of a global decline in demand for battery-powered cars. Lastly, according to Japanese press rumours, Toyota reduced its global electric vehicle production target for 2026 by about 30 per cent, with an output now expected to be 1 million units.