'Surreal to change the rules now', Tavares' criticism of European manufacturers

Stellantis number one criticises Acea's request to postpone CO2 emission rules

Carlos Tavares

By: Massimo Grassi

Published by: Brian Potter

Sep 17, 2024 at 4:02am ET

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The year 2025 is marked in red in the calendars of car manufacturers operating in Europe. From 1 January next year, the average CO2 emissions of their model ranges will have to be reduced from 116 to 94 g/km. Failure to do so will result in fines in the millions, one euro for every g/km in excess, to be multiplied by the number of cars sold. Solution? Sell more and more electric cars, so as to cut emissions as much as possible.

A mission deemed practically impossible by Acea, the association of European car manufacturers, who in a press release ask Europe for a postponement of the limits "A substantial and holistic review of the CO2 regulation will be essential to assess real-world progress against the level of ambition and to take appropriate measures". So far, no response has come from Europe, while Carlos Tavares - CEO of Stellantis - harshly criticised the association's demands.

No surprise

It would be surreal to change European rules now. [...] Everyone has known the rules for a long time, everyone has had time to prepare and so now we run

said the Portuguese manager to the France Press agency, lashing out at Acea, of which he has not been a member since 2022 and which counts giants such as the Renault Group and Volkswagen within its ranks. The Stellantis number one then points out that the rules have been known for a long time and that rushing to make amends today, just a few months after they came into force,"

From the point of view of the competition so dear to the EU, it would be surreal to change the rules now'.

Naturally, there is also no shortage of criticism at Europe and its regulations, with criticism of the imposition of all-electric and the 2035 end for combustion cars.

Now we have the cars, we have organised ourselves to make the necessary sales, we are breathing down Tesla's neck, and we are told there will be disasters. But we should have thought of that before, right?

In his criticism of Acea, Tavares also responds indirectly to Luca De Meo, CEO of the Renault Group and president of Acea who, just a few days ago, had stressed the urgency of revising the rules:

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"European car manufacturers could face fines of 15 billion euros if they fail to comply with EU CO2 emission standards. [...] To comply with the rules, manufacturers would have to reduce their production by 'more than 2.5 million vehicles. The low emissions of electric models can compensate for the share of as many as four combustion cars, but the sector is still too weak at the moment. "

A critical situation in many respects, with Volkswagen, for example, suffering from the prospect of redundancies as of June 2025.

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