Europe needs to ‘stand up’ to Donald Trump‘s efforts to punish EU carmakers, and strengthen its leadership in the transition to electric and smart vehicles, Transport & Environment (T&E) has said.
In an opinion piece on the T&E website, William Todts, the group’s executive director, said that caving in to Trump’s demands to recognise US car standards as equivalent to Europe ‘would be a grave error’, and the EU should stick to its guns, despite the imposition of 25% tariffs on EU-made cars.
Carmakers are ‘reeling’
“EU carmakers are reeling,” Todts commented. “The Trump tariffs will create their global supply chains and increase costs. Having just lost millions of cars sales in China because of their poor EV offer, they are now on the backfoot in another big market.”
Automotive executives have urged the European Commission to reappraise CO2 standards for the industry, and make efforts to repair trade agreements with both China and the US – as Todts noted, the car lobby is “urging the Commission to make a deal. Essentially the message is: ‘just give the guy what he wants’ so we can keep shipping cars around the world.”
The EU Commission is reportedly considering recognising US vehicle standards as equivalent to Europe’s, opening European roads to large, high-emission American SUVs and trucks like the RAM, Cadillac Escalade, and Chevrolet Silverado.
According to Todts, to date, EU leaders have been too passive in their response to Trump’s demands, particularly given that the US president has also aligned himself with Russian president Vladimir Putin, attacked key climate policies, and ‘waged war’ on judges, education, journalists, climate science and civil society.
Calling Trump’s bluff
“The response cannot be to ‘give the guy what he wants’,” Todts commented. “Europe must recognise its interests do not always align with the interests of multinational carmakers. Business is more than happy to fight against Europe’s long-term strategic interests if their short-term profits are at risk – just look at the debate on the CO2 Regulation.
“European leaders must not just stand up to Putin, but also to Donald Trump. Calling his bluff in the car wars would be a good start. Let Trump build a wall to protect expensive, gas guzzling SUVs. Meanwhile, Europe and China can compete and collaborate in the race for all-electric, software defined and automated vehicles.” Read more here.
