Automotive News Europe — 2024-09-19
Automotive Industry
ACEA asked for relief measures from stricter CO2 targets that will go into effect on 1 January 2025, citing sharply reduced demand for EVs.
European automakers are calling for “urgent action” ahead of 2025 emissions targets that could potentially cost billions of euros in fines for some of them at a time when the industry is struggling with a sharp slowdown in electric vehicle demand.
The industry is also urging the European Commission to bring forward planned C02 regulation reviews to next year from 2026 and 2027, the Brussels-based ACEA said in a statement on 19 September 2025 following a board meeting.
The group fell short of requesting use of emergency regulation to delay EU rules targeting a fleet emission of about 95 grams of CO2 per kilometer per vehicle by two years, an option under consideration according to a draft proposal obtained by Bloomberg News last week.
Luca de Meo, the president of ACEA and CEO of Renault Group, has been vocal about the need for flexibility in the implementation of stricter rules, saying they could force the industry to either halt production of about 2 m cars or be exposed to fines that could reach roughly €15 bn ($16.7 bn).
Europe’s auto manufacturers, “united in ACEA,” are playing their part in the transition “but unfortunately, the other necessary elements for this systemic shift are not in place,” they said in the statement.
VW Group CEO Oliver Blume, the head of Europe's largest automaker, has called for the 2025 target to be adjusted. "It doesn't make sense that the industry has to pay penalties when the framework conditions for the EV ramp up aren't in place," he told investors in March 2024.
In contrast, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares, who runs the second-largest automaker in Europe after Volkswagen Group, said the targets should remain in place.
"Now, we are a few months before the race starts, and somebody says, hold on, change the rules," Tavares told journalists in Turin on 17 September 2024. Even if there is a delay in the standards, he said, "the global warming issue is still here."
A recent analysis from Dataforce found that VW and Ford are most in danger of missing their 2025 targets.
Europe’s automakers are struggling to weather a steep downturn in EV demand after governments reduced incentives, while at the same time Chinese carmakers are increasingly expanding in the region.
From January to July 2024, fully electric vehicles made up 12.5% of new car registrations in the EU, according to ACEA figures, well below the level needed to be compliant with the stricter emissions rules.
The developments are putting pressure on the EU’s deadline to effectively ban sales of new combustion-engine cars from 2035, with European automakers divided over the way forward in the face of looming new rules.
“We stand ready to discuss a package of short-term relief for the 2025 CO2 targets for cars and vans,” ACEA said in the release.