The German car industry association VDA and senior government ministers criticised the EU’s preliminary tariffs on China-made electric cars announced today (12 June), which will also hit European companies producing in China, such as BMW and Dacia.
The company car market, which is ideally positioned to move towards electric-vehicles, is lagging behind the private market for the third year in a row, a new report by green group Transport & Environment (T&E) finds.
At a breakfast meeting before Thursday's (30 May) Energy Council, the EU’s pro-renewables countries agreed to push the incoming Commission for more policies favouring their technology.
The French president touts it, the French Delegate Minister for Energy praises it: the decarbonized nature of the French electricity mix is an unparalleled asset in attracting foreign investment, particularly in industry. The reality is more complex.
In the context of the war in Ukraine, the three Baltic States want to accelerate the desynchronisation of their electricity grids from Russia and Belarus and complete it by February 2025 at the latest.
Speaking at the FT's Future of the Car conference, Shu said that BYD will bring a low-cost electric vehicle based on its Chinese Seagull model to Europe.
A shortage of transformers is putting Europe's grid build-out at risk, stretching project lead times and adding to a price surge that will be felt on consumers' bills, researchers and experts have warned.
Production of car component at the town of Gifhorn will end in 2027 and move to Croatia, the Czech Republic and Wales to keep the costs "competitive", according to Continental, which will cut about 7,000 jobs worldwide.
On Thursday Bulgaria's Supreme Administrative Court stopped the controversial project to build a refuse-derived fuel (RDF) waste incinerator in the centre of Sofia, which would have used EU funding to turn the capital's waste into heat and electricity.
French President Emmanuel Macron set out his vision for the future of Europe, placing energy, including nuclear, at the core of his approach, in a speech at Sorbonne University on Thursday (April 25).
By Julia Payne
BRUSSELS, April 22 (Reuters) - The EU needs to rethink its policies to make a 2035 ban on new petrol car sales feasible as electric vehicles (EVs) remain unaffordable and alternative fuel options are not credible, the EU's external auditor said, jeopardising its 2050 climate goals.
The 27-member bloc wants to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, meaning it will emit no more than it can balance out with measures to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere such as reforestation programmes.
It hopes to meet its targets with the widespread use of electric vehicles as road transport accounts for nearly a quarter of its emissions.
The EU wants to have at least 30 million zero-emission cars on European roads by 2030, or about 12% of the current car fleet. However, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) cautioned the bloc may create new economic dependencies and hurt its own industry.
As it stands, high EV production costs in Europe means the bloc will have to rely on cheap imports, mainly from China, if it sticks to the 2035 goal. China accounts for 76% of EV battery output compared with the EU that represents less than 10% of production globally.
"The EU faces a conundrum, how to meet goals without harming industrial policy and hurting consumers," Annemie Turtelboom, an ECA member, told reporters. She added that 2026 will be a key year for a policy review.
Tesla is the leading EV maker in the United States and Europe but has come under pressure to slash prices due to competition from Chinese cars. Similarly, European carmakers like Stellantis that owns Peugeot and Fiat, and Renault are now racing to develop their own affordable EV models.
While EV purchases have been on the rise in the EU, the increase was largely due to subsidies. Further, charging infrastructure is lacking with 70% of charging points concentrated in just Germany, France and the Netherlands. The EU is falling short of its aim to set up 1 million charging stations across the bloc.
"(EV) prices would need to halve and subsidies do not seem to be a viable tool ... Batteries alone already costs 15,000 euros when produced in Europe," Turtleboom added when speaking to reporters.
Alternative fuels like biofuels, e-fuels or hydrogen remain uneconomic at commercial scale.
Adding to the difficulties in hitting its 2050 goal, the ECA said the EU has not cut real CO2 emissions from cars despite new testing standards and measures such as Euro 6.
In a January report, the ECA attributes this to the gap between laboratory tests and real world emission tests. The Commission was relying on lab tests, which created a skewed version. In reality, average emissions from diesel cars are the unchanged from 2010 at 170 grams of CO2 per kilometre while petrol cars are just down 4.6% at over 160 g CO2/km.
"Despite lofty ambitions and strict requirements, most conventional cars still emit as much CO2 as 12 years ago." Nikolaos Milionis, ECA member, said in a statement, attributing part of the failure to a rise in the average weight of cars. (Reporting by Julia Payne; editing by David Evans)
Huge dam projects built in Sweden, Austria and France decades ago might not be feasible today, but pumped storage hydropower at sites with existing infrastructure could have major potential to reduce the EU’s emissions.
After a first campaign of attacks on transmission infrastructures in 2022-23, Russia has recently started focusing its airstrikes on electricity-generating thermal and hydropower plants, causing an electricity deficit that may take years to make up for.
The EU is about to ratify the Electricity market reform. But this major achievement could be only the first building block of the future European electricity system. Numerous adjustments will have to be made to ensure its resilience after 2030, or even a new reform. Analysis.
Former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta is set to present his report on the future of Europe’s single market to EU leaders on Thursday 18 April. A deepening of Europe’s Energy Union is a key priority, along with several targeted recommendations on how to transform Europe’s energy sector.
The decision to open an anti-subsidy investigation against Chinese electric cars was not sufficiently coordinated with Berlin, the head of the German car industry association VDA said on Thursday (11 April), criticising von der Leyen’s solo effort.
Average emissions of new trucks will have to be reduced by 90% by 2040, compared to 2019, the European Parliament decided on Wednesday (10 April), adopting a law that will drastically reduce the number of new diesel trucks.
The EU is looking to fast-track massive investments into its energy infrastructure, shifting risk from companies to consumers and risking a landscape with derelict, half-finished pylons.
Bulgaria’s coal-fired power plants halved their electricity output last year, while solar farms increased production by 141% compared to the previous year, according to data the country’s Energy and Water Regulatory Commission sent to parliament.
Ukraine's daily electricity imports reached their highest this year on Tuesday (26 March) after a series of Russian missile strikes on critical infrastructure caused blackouts in many regions, the energy ministry said.
On Monday 18 March, the Council adopted a new law to protect wholesale energy markets from manipulation. The new regulation aims to strengthen market surveillance and guarantee open and fair competition in the European Union.
French candidates topping the lists for the EU elections in June laid bare their differences on nuclear energy and the EU electricity market in the first televised debate of Public Sénat on Thursday (14 March).
The sharp drop in the EU's CO2 price, caused by high energy prices and political uncertainty, risks the carbon market's credibility – and becomes an obstacle to the bloc's industrial decarbonisation.
French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said he would convene a meeting of pro-nuclear EU countries on 4 March to discuss the launch of an “Important Project of Common Interest (IPCEI)” in the field of nuclear power.
