Faced with protectionist measures taken by the Biden administration in the United States, Europe has also had to react. This was announced by French President Emmanuel Macron reform of the environmental premium for the purchase of electric cars in order to take into account the carbon footprint of vehicles during their production.

The move aims to favor cars made in Europe, which tend to have a lower carbon footprint than those made in other countries.

Currently, the electric car industry is “controlled” mainly by China, which is the world’s largest producer of electric cars, as well as batteries. However, for energy production, the country is still largely dependent on the use of coal.

A mistake not to repeat

France wants to support European-made batteries and vehicles because of their lower carbon footprint. Although it looks and sounds like a response to recent actions by the United States, the president emphasized that this is not a protectionist measure, but rather a decision to avoid using taxpayers’ money to accelerate industrialization in countries outside the European Union. This reform also aims to avoid the mistakes made in the photovoltaic industry, which is now dominated by the Chinese.

The criteria for calculating the environmental premium will be determined till the end of the year and producers will have to prove that they meet the necessary criteria to benefit from this bonus. The Ministry of Economy also emphasized that the use of recycled or biomaterials in production will be considered.

Prioritize Europe

Emmanuel Macron also announced that public procurement will take into account environmental criteria for key decarbonisation products such as wind turbines and heat pumps from July 2024 instead of 2026. This means that public procurement will no longer be awarded to non-European companies and that responsible public procurement will be preferred.