Brussels – Over two billion just for battery development and production in Europe, one billion for large-scale driverless autonomous vehicles, and then charging network-friendly legislation and incentives for useful job training in the production chain. The European Commission unveils the Car Action Plan, which confirms the commitments already made with European manufacturers in fines and flexibility on sustainability goals set out in the Green Deal. With a twist: the review of the regulation on CO2 emission standards will be brought forward from 2026 to the third and fourth quarters of this year.
The document finalised in Brussels revolves around the electric car, for which the EU executive is set to mobilise €1.8 billion from the innovation fund to support European manufacturers. Added to this are €350 million that Brussels wants to allocate to the automotive sector from the Horizon program for research.
In parallel, the EU wants to defend the European market from unfair competition practices. To this end, according to the action plan, the EU Commission will examine “the definition of specific rules of origin” for electric batteries imported into Europe. This is an anti-China measure, aimed at discouraging offshoring to other third countries such as India, Vietnam or Turkey and then selling in the EU. This is coupled with a commitment to involve the European Investment Bank (EIB) also to encourage private investment and support European automakers with even more resources. 
Driverless vehicles, here’s a billion
Confirmed openings on fines and biofuels
Finally, the reassurances and guarantees given to the automotive industry on sanctions and legislative review are also included in the action plan for the car. The Commission will present the targeted amendment to prevent penalties from being triggered in 2025 for manufacturers selling few low- and zero-emission cars.
The proposed amendment to the CO2 regulation aims to make the checks (currently to be conducted annually) triennial, giving time until 2027 to sell what has not been sold so far and postpone the risk of fines.
