Automotive News Europe — 2023-01-11
Automotive Industry
Stellantis is ending all its lobbying activities after frustrating experiences with politicians over increasingly tougher regulations on emissions.
The automaker quit the European automakers' lobby group ACEA last year as part of a new approach to addressing future mobility issues and challenges.
Now CEO Carlos Tavares has made the even more drastic decision to halt all the automaker's lobbying.
"We no longer have lobbyists. We do not negotiate anymore," Tavares said. "We can no longer wait for governments to make decisions -- we have to run faster than regulation."
For the auto industry it is now a matter of anticipating what politicians will prescribe as the next regulatory step, Tavares said on the sidelines of the 2023 CES electronics show in Las Vegas.
Tavares is a former president of ACEA, which represents major car, truck and bus companies with manufacturing operations in Europe.
Tavares, and other European auto executives, believe European Union politicians and officials are not fully taking into account automakers' concerns that tougher emissions limits are harming the industry, a key provider of jobs.
On previous occasions, the Stellantis boss had repeatedly called for the planning of new environmental legislation to be based on scientific facts rather than presumed relationships or influencing variables.
"There are, in my view, two ways of looking at the world to solve the CO2 problems: There is a pragmatic view and a dogmatic view. The pragmatic view tries to reduce CO2 levels as broadly and effectively as possible through a clever mix of propulsion technologies. The dogmatic view believes that this goal can only be achieved with battery-electric vehicles," Tavares said.
The EU's path of increasingly stringent CO2 emissions limits through to a zero-emissions target in 2035 for newly registered passenger cars ignores the fact that this does not regulate a large proportion of the vehicle population, he said.
In addition, especially in the current economic squeeze, many customers will not be able to afford to buy a new car as prices rise to cover the costs of adding technology to meet tougher regulations, Tavares said. Instead, people will drive for even longer with outdated and more environmentally harmful vehicles.
Stellantis plans an annual "Freedom of Mobility" event to discuss how to bring clean, safe, and affordable freedom of mobility for society in the face of global warming. The first one will take place early this year.
The idea, Tavares said, is to have a broad public dialogue with stakeholders from all sectors, arguing with facts is central to the discussion on environmental standards.