THE Foundation of Savings Banks (Funcas) called for investment incentives to reverse the “decline” of the European car industry, although the “problem” is that the impact of these incentives fades over time, and in the meantime competitors “enjoy an advantage that can grow”.
In its latest edition of “Economic Information Notebooks”, the situation director of Funcas, Raymond Torresbelieves that neither the imposition of import customs duties – such as those applied by the European Commission – nor purchasing aid – similar to the Moves III plan – are sufficient for a sector such as the automobile industry, which is experiencing “a significant decline both in absolute terms and in comparison with the United States and China.
Between 2019 and 2023, European production fell by 16.6% and the data available for 2024, according to Funcas, indicate a prolonged downward trend, in a context where USA It has “stabilized” after recovering some of the ground lost between 2015 and 2019 when it recorded a twenty percentage point decline in its production.
According to Funcas’ analysis of the automobile, the European decline is due, among other things, to a weakening of demand due to temporary causes “more or less reversible” following the energy shock that Europe faced following the disconnection of the electricity grid. Russian fossil fuels, after the start of the war in Ukraine which caused a deterioration in the purchasing power of the Community market and which ended up affecting the purchase of automobiles.
Thus, Torres indicates that regulatory uncertainties “may also have influenced” after the European Commission announced the ban on sales of combustion cars from 2035, as well as the demand for electric vehicles which “takes time” to take over from combustion vehicles due to the deficiencies of the network of charging points, the fact that the electric car is not perfectly replaceable by a combustion car, and the persistence of relatively high purchase prices.
Funcas warns the car
From a structural point of view, the alert comes from an obstacle such as the technological delay accumulated in relation to the electric vehicle, the deployment of which constitutes a central object of the European economic policyIn this context, China appears to be the big winner, occupying first place in the ranking of producing countries and consolidating its progress.
“The more or less hidden subsidies of the Chinese state “They have proven to be crucial in initiating the transition and consolidating it,” says Raymon Torres, adding that the result is that the EU is “losing ground” in international electric vehicle markets.
