Europe's Biggest Political Party Rides to the Rescue of Domestic Automakers

European legacy automakers find a new champion supporting their calls for the European Union to scale back CO2 emission targets in the shape of the bloc’s biggest political party.

The center-right European People's Party (EPP) is mounting its own campaign to help automakers avoid damaging fines, due to come into effect next year, for missing mandated targets in a draft proposal, reports Reuters.

Its demands, about to be published this week, rachet up the pressure on regulators to modify climate-focused rules that threaten to squeeze automaker budgets at a time of acute competition from Chinese automakers, which are subsidized by the communist state up to nine-times greater than Europe’s companies receive from their governments.

Several automakers have warned they cannot meet the mandated limits and are bracing for potentially billions of euros in fines, thanks largely to the much slower than expected consumer adoption of zero-tailpipe-emission battery-electric vehicles.

Of course, the mandates do not take account of whole-life CO2 emissions of vehicles where BEVs do not fare so well against ICE vehicles, especially in nations dependent on heavy fossil-fuel use to power electricity generation.

The EPP draft also says the EU's 2035 proposed ban on sales of new ICE vehicles “should be reversed” in line with an existing, but as yet unratified, proposal to allow those running carbon-neutral fuels, such as biofuels, synthetics and hydrogen beyond this date.

The party’s suggestion goes further to say the ban also should exclude plug-in hybrid cars. It asked Brussels to undertake an early review of the 2035 policy next year to make these changes.

The EPP is the biggest group in both the European Parliament and the European Commission where it holds the majority of the 27 members, including President Ursula von der Leyen.

Europe’s automaker lobbying group, the European Automobile Manufacturers Assn. (ACEA), has already called for a weakening of next year’s CO2 emission targets.

The EPP has had some recent successes with other calls to weaken green policies. Last month the EU delayed its landmark anti-deforestation law by a year, after pushback from the party, industries and governments including Brazil and the U.S.