Europe’s van makers are strongly pressing the European Union to put the brakes on “financially lethal” emissions targets designed to shift the industry towards 100% electric by 2035, even as signs of EV growth are emerging.
Legislators in the EU and the UK are forcing an accelerated pace of electrification in the van segment, a pace that the van makers say they can’t meet.
“It's not reachable for me. It’s not reachable for everybody, except if you crash the market or the financials of the OEMs,” Jean-Philippe Imparato, the outgoing head of Stellantis in Europe, told journalists at last month’s Munich motor show. “It's absolutely lethal for this industry.”
The UK's electric van market had its biggest sales month yet in September, with 4262 units sold, and overall sales for the year of 22,119 is a rise of 60%, according to figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). So far, that equates to an electric share of 9.1%.
Meanwhile, electric sales in the European Union accounted for 9.4% of all new vans sold in the first half of the year.
While those numbers are rising, they’re nowhere near the levels mandated. In the UK, that figure needs to be 16% this year to satisfy the van portion of the ZEV mandate, while the EU requires a 15% drop in CO2 emissions from 2021 levels, a figure that, some van makers say, requires a jump in EV share to around a fifth of the total.
Manufacturers have put their case to the European Commission to plead for laxer targets, which in 2030 drop to an average of 90.6g/km of CO2, down from the 185g/km figure that was allowed before 2025.
“The short-term priority is this one,” new Renault Group CEO François Provost told journalists at the sidelines of the Munich event. “For LCV, we are nowhere.”
For the likes of Ford, Volkswagen, Renault and Stellantis – the main players in the European van market – light commecial vehicles are a key profit driver. “LCV represents between 30% and 40% of the result of the company,” said Imparato.
If van makers don’t shift to electric fast enough, they face huge fines. In a recent report, banking firm Bernstein flagged up that one of the risks for anyone taking a punt on Stellantis as an investment was a potential €2.6 billion (£2.2bn) fine for not electrifying vans fast enough.
Van makers complain that electric vans dent profits and are not wanted by buyers, who continue to do what they’ve always done and buy diesel.
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