Over the years, I have often discussed electric cars with a car dealer friend. The first time was when he lent me a battery-powered car for a day. I tested it on a journey of about eighty kilometres, trusting in the fact that the car manufacturer had guaranteed triple the range. Once I reached my destination I realized that I risked not returning home, because the dashboard indicated just over another eighty kilometers available and so I took the route backwards with the fear of being left on foot. With another car, which ensured greater autonomy, I didn’t have the thrill of running out of fuel, but let’s say that all along the road I scrutinized the battery level so as not to have any nasty surprises, ready for a technical stop in search of a charging station.
Finally, I told my friend that the electric car wasn’t for me. At least until it guaranteed greater ease of use. I remember that in response he confided in me that he thought the same as me. A couple of years have passed since then, and my acquaintance gave up selling electric cars, so as not to submit to the impositions of car manufacturers, who push battery-powered vehicles more than motorized ones, imposing targets that risk strangling the network of sales.
Let’s be clear, it’s not all the companies’ fault. As has become clear in recent days, with the resignation of the CEO of Stellantis, the groups in the sector are in turn affected by the objectives set by the European Union to reduce emissions per kilometer travelled. In practice, Brussels requires that the average parameters of the cars placed on the market by a car manufacturer be 15 percent lower than in the past. All this not in ten years, when heat engines will no longer be able to be produced, but immediately, that is, starting from next January. Penalty heavy fines, which according to the agency Reuterswould reach 15 billion euros by 2025 alone, equal to the entire profit of a group like Renault.
To avoid falling victim to this trap, producers have two options. The first is to sell more electric cars, in order to bring the group’s balance within the parameters set by EU bureaucrats. And this solution is what led my dealer friend to give up sales to dedicate himself to maintenance. In fact, to achieve the objectives set by Brussels, it is necessary to sell double the number of battery-powered cars sold in 2024, a result that is unattainable, for the simple reason that the market is going in the opposite direction. That is, instead of growing, registrations of cars without an engine but with a battery are decreasing, because once the curiosity for the new models has passed, motorists realize the difficulties of charging, but also the limited autonomy. Therefore, weighing the pros and cons, such as the higher purchase cost no longer compensated by a lighter fuel tank on tap, they decide to buy cars with combustion engines. Going from 16 percent (this is the case of Volkswagen) to 36 as expected is not realistic, not even if the sales network is stressed by inserting almost oppressive clauses to push dealers to convince customers.
The second solution, the one that does not foresee a doubling of the diffusion of battery-powered models, is the reduction in the sale of combustion engine cars. That is, to respond to European diktats we need to produce less, stop plants and lay off employees, if not fire them. And that’s what’s happening across Europe, with factory closures involving major brands (Audi, Volkswagen, Ford) and numerous suppliers (Bosch, Valeo, FZ, Continental). Does this seem more like madness than a solution? Me too, but I’m not surprised.
The European Union has accustomed us to these choices: remember when in the past – it was still called the Czech Republic, the European Coal and Steel Community – wanted the closure of the blast furnaces, ready to pay to achieve the goal? Or when he demanded with fines that farmers did not produce more than a certain quantity of liters of milk? Here, now we have arrived at the car: some high-ups in Brussels, with the condescension of politicians, who instead of listening to ideologies instead of common sense, are repeating the mistakes already made with the steel mills and the stables. The result is that we will soon be given not the farmers’ protests, but the revolt of tens of thousands of newly unemployed people. Ah, I forgot: my friend thanks every day for having had the idea of giving up the dealership.
