The Minister of Economy, Bruno Le Maire, reaffirmed this Monday the “decided choice of the electric car” by the French industry. “I say this to all political parties that say that it is absolutely necessary to continue developing thermal energy: it is the best way to catch up and serve foreign interests,” the minister stressed in a press conference.
Within the framework of this 2024-2027 sector contract, signed on Monday by the industry and the Government, France will accentuate its transition towards electric cars in the next three years, with a goal of 800,000 sales from 2027. But the right raises voices and the extreme right, as the European elections approach, to denounce an electrical change that is too tense, between vehicles that are still expensive to acquire and a complicated transition for the industry.
For Bruno Le Maire, “persisting in the thermal vehicle, as some political groups propose, means being tied hand and foot” to “the oil-producing countries”, on the one hand, and “to the large manufacturers (foreign, ed.) who are fully committed to electric vehicles and will sell them in French territory.
National options must become “European options”
The minister also reaffirmed the goal of producing two million electric and hybrid vehicles in France by 2030, while production only reached 1.5 million vehicles, all energies included, in 2023. There are ten years left until the deadline European Union by 2035, when 100% of new cars must be electric and “it is not when we achieve this transition that we change focus”, stressed Bruno Le Maire. On the other hand, it is “indispensable” that “these national options become European options” in favor of the energy transition, and “there is much left to do,” according to the minister.
At his side, the representative of equipment manufacturers and suppliers, Luc Châtel, asked the automobile industry to prepare a “European pact” between the automobile industry, the Commission and the States, with commitments on competition rules. , investments or training. “We approach the issue from the wrong side, we choose change through regulation and not through innovation, nor through the market,” stressed the president of the Automotive Platform.
Bruno Le Maire also called for “solidarity” in the sector, while “there is still too much brutality in the relations between the principals”, that is, the manufacturers and large equipment manufacturers, “and the subcontractors”.
Source: BFM TV
