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Europe will introduce a new program to stimulate demand for electric vehicles. At the same time, it was announced the launch of a so-called strategic dialogue, the purpose of which is to help automakers overcome the difficulties they have encountered on the way to the transition to "electric vehicles".
Speaking at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that electric mobility is the future, and those who think otherwise want to harm European industry. Obviously, changing the technological landscape remains the main goal of the EC, as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also says. According to her, the next few years will be crucial, and Europe has everything it needs to continue the technological race.
The problems faced by the automotive industry on the path to large-scale electrification are to be solved through strategic dialogue. These will be regular meetings with industry representatives, major shareholders and trade unions, at which some solutions will be found and further steps will be determined. How effective this format will be is not yet clear. But if nothing is done in the near future, then the reduction of personnel in individual companies, for example, Volkswagen and Stellantis, threatens with serious social and economic upheavals.
Today, the automotive industry generates 7% of the EU's gross domestic product, so the call by the largest and oldest faction in the European Parliament, the European People's Party, to review the EC's climate strategy in relation to the car industry is not surprising. MEPs propose to repeal the high-profile ban on the sale of new passenger and light commercial vehicles with internal combustion engines, as it deprives consumers of choice, and to focus on alternative technologies, from synthetic fuels and hydrogen to hybrids.
In response, Olaf Scholz announced a new program to stimulate demand for electric vehicles, which will be common to the entire European Union. In Germany, it will also include a temporary tax deduction.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has reversed course by scrapping all state aid programs and ordering the easing of carbon emissions requirements. The White House even withdrew from the Paris climate agreement, saying: "The US refuses to sabotage its own industry while China pollutes with impunity."
