at CES 2023 in Las Vegas. “The price difference between European and Chinese vehicles is significant,” he said. “If nothing is changed in the current situation, European customers from the middle class will increasingly turn to Chinese models.”
Tavares apparently sees the EU’s emissions regulations as part of the problem. “Regulation in Europe ensures that electric cars built in Europe are about 40 percent more expensive than comparable vehicles made in China,” he said, adding that the region’s auto industry could suffer the same bleak fate as the European solar panel industry.
Tavares sees two ways forward: protectionism, which wouldn’t be popular with German automakers, who do a lot of business in China; or a pitched battle. “If you keep the European market open, then we have no choice: we have to fight the Chinese directly. And that applies to the entire automotive value chain.”
However, “that would inevitably lead to unpopular decisions,” by which he surely means job cuts and the relocation of factories to lower-cost regions. “If nothing is done in the European Union, there will be a terrible fight,” he said., and he has a history of making thinly-veiled appeals for government subsidies. But that doesn’t make his words untrue.
Where? Only see teslas VWs and Hyundais. Sometimes a polestar but very seldomly
Because regulators are also asleep at the wheel.
Yes, Norway is in Europe, but not in the EU. Chinese EVs still rare in the EU....