'Show me the BEV Money', Says Renault Boss

If European Union lawmakers want to help the automotive industry’s transition to electric transportation, they'd better pay for it!

That’s the key message of Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo’s open letter to Europe’s politicians as he spells out a strategy of investment that he says must be implemented to drive forward the huge transition that the automotive industry is being asked to achieve.

His comments come after his warning at last autumn’s IAA Mobility in Munich to Europe’s lawmakers that they will have to make level the playing field for domestic automakers facing subsidized inexpensive battery-electric vehicles from China.

Now he sets out his vision for a thriving European automotive industry in his open letter to political leaders ahead of European elections in a few weeks.

He proposes several recommendations and measures to develop a genuine European industrial policy which is competitive and decarbonized. Among these is the suggestion to set up an “industrial Champions League” to reward players committed to the transition and establishing “green economic zones” that would concentrate investments and subsidies for the energy transition.

He also proposes the launch of 10 major European projects in strategic areas that go far beyond the automotive sector alone: promoting small European cars, of course, but also revolutionizing last-mile delivery, developing charging infrastructures and V2G technology, increasing Europe’s competitiveness in semiconductors.

He suggests this period of transformation can be the springboard for an industrial renewal in Europe by leading large-scale projects between the public and private sectors. “With Airbus, we have already seen what Europe can do,” says de Meo. “By stepping up cooperative initiatives, we will set our industry on the road to revival.”

Recalling the importance of the automotive sector not only for the economy, which faces unbalanced competition, de Meo says: “The Americans stimulate, the Chinese plan, the Europeans regulate. Europe must invent a hybrid model (involving) Europe’s 200 largest cities in the decarbonization strategy.”

He adds that “the ecological transition is a team sport” and that “the European automotive industry could rapidly emerge as the solution to the challenges facing the continent.” de Meo's letter in full can be read here.