European carmakers are pleading for speedy clarification on proposals published in December designed to ease the path to full electrification, with specific focus on the new small-car category.

Carmakers including Renault and Stellantis have largely welcomed the proposed changes, which include allowing some combustion engine sales after 2035. 

However the detail remains thin on the ground and the carmakers are concerned that proposals that superficially offer a leg-up might be harder to achieve in reality. 

“What I would like now is not a change in the direction of what they announced, but a clarification of what they announced,” Fabrice Cambolive, head of Renault brand, told Autocar in Paris. 

One of the biggest potential boosts to European carmakers is the planned new small affordable car initiative that creates a new M1E subcategory for EU-built electric cars under 4.2 metres in length. 

Selling one of these cars would generate its maker 1.3 EV credits, creating a useful pressure valve in the battle to continue with combustion engine vehicle sales without racking up unsustainable fines for not hitting CO2 targets. 

Meanwhile the EU has also said it will “take into account the proportionally higher impact on development costs

that new requirements can have on small electric vehicles”, when applying future regulations, generally referred to a ‘freeze’ on future rules.

Individual countries and cities including those not in the EU like the UK could also offer incentives to M1E vehicles, like reduced parking charges or scrappage bonuses.

“It’s a good initiative. It goes in the right direction,” Emanuele Cappellano, Stellantis’ new head of Europe, told journalists at the Brussels motor show, Jan 9.

Cappellano’s “point of contention” was around EU content plans, which could end up working against the aim to make the cars more affordable. “The EU should define a way to gradually increase the supply chain instead of trying to impose a EU source,” he said.

The idea behind the  European Union’s small car initiative is to help carmakers but also protect EU jobs by ensuring that any qualifying model is both built in the bloc and has lots of local content. 

So far the parameters haven’t been defined, but carmakers are nervous that the initiative will clash with a long-held strategy to outsource production and parts supply of cheaper models to cheaper countries.

Some cars will be likely be fine, for example the Renault 5 and associated models built at the company/s Douai, northern France plant, using batteries from the nearby AESC plant. Others get more complicated. The Fiat Grande Panda for example is built in Serbia outside the EU but will it have enough EU built parts to qualify? 

Chinese parts are almost a given these days and big parts including batteries and electric motors would account for the majority in percentage value calculations. But could an exemption be made for cars built in the EU with an agreed timetable to switch to EU parts? 

The complexity of such a calculation could play into carmakers’ hands. “I think it would be good not to have it by car, but on a fleet,” Katrin Adt, CEO of Dacia, told Autocar. “The easier it is to calculate the better it is.”

That would help Dacia in that its Spring small EV comes from China, while other key models are built in the EU.

Renault says it tries to keep its parts suppliers close to plants.

“We are talking about 1,000 kms around the assembly plant, which means that when we are localising in Europe, we are localising also our supplier space around that,” Renault head of product Bruno Vanel told journalists.

Freezing or slowing regulations is another key hope for carmakers on small cars as they try to control rising costs, even if safety groups are pushing back on proposals. European Transport Safety Council said it was “deeply concerned” by the European Commission’s approach to small car safety timelines and accused them of “unprecedented reliance on industry demands”.

Other carmaker concerns revolve around the proposals that the few combustion-engine models that are allowed post 2035 are made with low-carbon ‘green’ steel, a rare commodity so far, or run on e-fuels or biofuels, which would be tough to implement.

Whatever the final regulations look like, carmakers are keen for them come fast and stay put. “I think that the most important thing is now to have clarity and to the security to be able to base your decision on something which is reliable for the next years ahead,” Dacia’s Adt said.