Anne-Sophie Frigout is a French Member of the European Parliament, affiliated with the Patriots for Europe group. Committed to defending motorists and the French automotive industry, she began her political career in 2022 as a deputy in the National Assembly, where she was notably the first to propose a bill aimed at repealing Low Emission Zones — a Brussels-imposed measure that would have excluded lower-income residents from city centres, as they could not afford to change their vehicles. Today, as a member of the Environment Committee, she continues this fight, advocating for Europe to move beyond a purely regulatory approach to environmental policy and to fundamentally rethink the foundations of its automotive industrial strategy.
If the Green Deal has contributed to turning Europe from a land of automotive industry into a mere market, caught between China and the United States, without truly addressing environmental challenges, the new majority in the European Parliament is reshuffling the deck.
Indeed, time is running out: at the current pace, the European automotive market could be reduced by more than half within a decade.
Proud of his announcements presented as a ‘Christmas gift’ as part of the new automotive package, European Commissioner for Industry Stéphane Séjourné confidently declared: “The European automotive industry was in mortal danger; today, we are changing the course of history. “
However, while the Commission has broken its totem by partially giving in, with 10% of non-exclusively electric vehicles allowed, and while we can rejoice in this symbolic victory, a fundamental problem remains: Von der Leyen is only giving in under pressure. There is no change of course, merely a timid easing of constraints.
Two figures are particularly telling: nearly 100 new regulations will apply to the automotive industry by 2030, while a quarter of R&D remains devoted solely to regulatory compliance.
Furthermore, with only 10% of non-electric vehicles authorised for sale in 2035 — and subject to conditions — technological neutrality is still far from being established. Even though we know that clean mobility cannot rely exclusively on the mining industry, as this is a matter of both industrial sovereignty and genuine environmental responsibility.
Within this limited 10%, only 3% concern biofuels without conditions. It should be noted that first-generation biofuels that can be used for food-related purposes are excluded. Yet they have a far more significant role to play. In France, for instance, Superethanol E85 replaced more than 7.75% of fossil gasoline consumption in 2023.
The role of plug-in hybrids is also marginalised, both in terms of their low authorised share in the 2035 target and their protection from Chinese exports, which represent 15% of the European hybrid market. This approach is counterproductive, given that we know that the all-electric vehicles policy is slowing down purchases and motorists are keeping their combustion engine vehicles for longer. Plug-in hybrids are indeed a necessary step in helping consumers make the transition to electric vehicles, both in terms of behaviour and price. We must not fixate on current emissions comparison data for electric and hybrid vehicles; other factors must be considered over the long term.
China, moreover, has not banned technologies; it refers to “electric vehicles” in a broad sense. We should therefore allow clean technologies to compete with one another and give each of them a role in this transition.
Among other measures, professional fleets will be required to purchase 80% electric vehicles within their annual vehicle acquisitions by 2035. The Commission sees fleets as a key lever, as they represent up to 60% of new vehicle registrations in some European countries.
For Brussels, the objective is to artificially create demand by shifting the burden from private consumers to companies, with the underlying aim of structuring an affordable second-hand electric vehicle market for households. However, market realities must also be acknowledged: second-hand electric vehicles struggle to sell, their value depreciates sharply, and demand remains sluggish. For dealerships, used electric vehicles are more of a burden than a growth opportunity.
Let us also see the glass as half full. The creation of a new category of “affordable small cars”, benefiting from lighter regulations and designed to promote the production of less expensive vehicles in the EU, will benefit our manufacturers, notably those in France. Yet there is one caveat: this category is exclusively reserved for electric vehicles, even though small models with very low emissions are also part of the solution.
Another victory for what our group has always defended: European preference, based on a local content rate that determines access to aid. Finally – albeit a little late – protectionism is making headway in Brussels!
At this stage, the criteria are still limited and not really defined. Caution should be exercised in interpreting this European preference, given that the value chains of the automotive industry, in the case of electric vehicles, have never been so fragmented, and that European manufacturers are pursuing differentiated global strategies.
The aim must be to ensure that European preference applies primarily to high-value-added segments, while retaining the possibility of maintaining certain lower-value-added value chains in countries where groups have based their industrial strategy, sometimes for decades. This flexibility is essential to preserve our competitiveness in a market where Europe no longer has technological advantages over China.
Fundamentally, the entire industrial policy needs to be rebuilt, and even if we have slowed down, we are still heading straight for disaster.
To this end, we cannot be satisfied with an emergency procedure in Parliament that would consist only of minor adjustments, as desired by those groups that consider the Green Deal untouchable. Europe needs a new ambitious course, guided by three principles: technological neutrality, competitiveness and protectionism. Let us not leave our green transition in China’s hands.
