Surtaxes on Chinese electric cars protect European manufacturers, but not car suppliers, Valeo director Christophe Périllat said in an interview with AFP on Sunday.
Manufacturers represent “a small part” of automotive employment and these surcharges on imported vehicles “do not protect the sector at all”, stressed Christophe Périllat in the middle of an exhibition of the innovations of his teams in Malakoff (Hauts-de-Seine). , on the sidelines of the Paris Motor Show.
Chinese electric vehicles sold in Europe will have to pay import taxes of up to 45% from the end of October. Some manufacturers, including BYD, have already announced the opening of sites in Europe or nearby to avoid these surcharges.
“What the European Commission decided was, ultimately, to protect the assembly plant, to force Chinese manufacturers to establish themselves in Europe. But, with the equipment coming from where? From Europe, from China? It’s about 13 million jobs”, that is, the number of employees in the automotive sector, explained Christophe Périllat.
75% local parts
According to him, Europe could be inspired by the agreement established between the United States, Mexico and Canada (T-MEC), which stipulates that a vehicle must be manufactured with 75% (in value) of local parts to avoid customs duties.
In addition, Valeo has numerous facilities in China that produce for local car factories, compared to which Europe has lost “25% of its competitiveness in four years”, in particular due to inflation in wages and manufacturing costs. manufacturing, according to Christophe Périllat. , whose group has 112,000 employees worldwide.
“This is a situation that should alarm us: how can we protect the European automobile industry against a 25% loss of competitiveness?” he stressed.
Valeo resisted the slowdown in automobile production well in the first half of 2024, but lowered its billing forecasts for the years 2024 and 2025 in the face of a very uncertain market, particularly for sales of electric cars.
Its sales of electric motors fell sharply, but this drop was almost offset by sales of lighting and driver assistance systems such as cameras.
Source: BFM TV
