Electrification has already started
Carlos Tavares, the CEO of Stellantis, does not expect much from the exception that the EU will make for new cars that run on ‘e-fuels’ from 2035. According to the Portuguese, electrification has already started and will in any case remain with Stellantis just the course.
Initially, the idea was that there would be an effective ban on fuel engines in the EU by 2035, but now an exception has been made at the last minute for alternative fuels. Combustion engines that run on so-called CO2-neutral ‘e-fuels’ may then still be sold new. In practice, this can be especially interesting for manufacturers of exclusive (sports) cars, because the alternative fuels will probably turn out to be quite expensive. Carlos Tavares does not expect the EU turnaround to have much impact on the direction automakers have taken so far in view of 2035.
According to the CEO of the second largest car group in Europe Autonews that already in 2014 and 2015 the current course of the then Groupe PSA was started towards a more electric offer. It no longer deviates from that, not even if it could be done easily. Moreover, according to Tavares, e-fuels are still in their infancy: “I think e-fuel is a technology that is still evolving. The industry has yet to demonstrate that they are carbon neutral, on the one hand how carbon is captured and the other side what the engine’s emissions are.” Stellantis continues to focus on electric driving, said Tavares: “We are well on track to deliver the electrification that the EU expects.”
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl