The European Union is treading a fine line with plans to introduce ‘Made in EU’ rules for the bloc’s auto industry, seeking to revive local manufacturing without damaging relations with major trading partners.
The plans, due on Wednesday as part of a drive to boost EU industry more broadly, are complicated by divisions between member states, with France taking a more protectionist line and Germany more worried about potential retaliation.
They also face pushback from automakers that rely on non-EU supplies or, like Ford and Jaguar Land Rover, have major operations in nearby non-EU countries that are also lobbying Brussels. Britain, Turkey and Morocco are interested in ‘Made in Europe’ rules – but only if they are not shut out.
The stakes are high.
“If we don’t do this, there will be massive relocations,” Christophe Perillat, the CEO of French auto supplier Valeo said on Friday. “I’ve never seen an industry go and come back.”
RETALIATION FEARS
Under the latest leaked version of the proposed Industrial Accelerator Act, an electric vehicle would need 70% of the cost of its parts to be manufactured in the bloc, excluding the battery, to qualify for EU subsidies.
The draft also requires minimum EU-based content in the battery pack, although excluding cells acknowledges China’s dominance of the global battery cell supply chain.
Europe’s auto sector has long been under pressure, a squeeze intensified by the arrival of Chinese rivals rolling out cheaper, tech-heavy EVs.
French small suppliers association Fiev says its members shed half their workforce between 2007 and 2024, and president Jean-Louis Pech warns employment could halve again by the end of the decade without action.
Antoine Doutriaux, CEO of Plastivaloire, which makes plastic interior parts and closed a French plant last year, says not mandating local content “would be very dangerous for European industry”. He says Chinese rivals pay 30% less for raw materials and “don’t play by the same rules”.
But Germany’s automakers sell more than a quarter of their vehicles in China, the world’s largest auto market, and fear strict local-content rules could trigger a trade war.
“Further measures perceived as protectionist, which may include local content requirements, carry the risk of backlash from other countries,” said Karoline Kampermann, head of economic policy, foreign trade, SMEs and taxation at German car lobby group VDA.
China rejects suggestions its automakers benefit from unfair subsidies and has retaliated against other EU measures it considers protectionist, such as EU import tariffs on Chinese-made EVs.
‘WALKING ON EGGSHELLS’
Global auto supply chains are so complex, and so integrated, that determining local-content levels in individual models is no easy feat.
French firm A2MAC1, which strips down cars for automakers to assess competitors’ products, reviewed two European-made EVs for Reuters – Volkswagen’s ID.3 and Renault’s Renault 5 – based on cost of parts by country.
It found the ID.3 sourced 86% of its content by value from the EU and just 7% from China, not including raw materials. It easily qualifies as made in the EU.
Renault says up to 80% of suppliers for the Renault 5 are within 300 km (186 miles) of its northern France assembly site. But A2MAC1 found EU-based parts accounted for only 51% of the car’s cost, with China supplying 41%. Excluding the battery – the component most dependent on China – lifts EU content to about 76%. On that basis the Renault 5 would meet the threshold.
A further challenge is that, under the Commission’s proposal, only parts from EU members plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway – the European Economic Area – would count as local content, though it would consider parts from “trusted partners” and take World Trade Organization agreements into account.
Ford’s European supply chain, for example, depends heavily on Britain and Turkey, and European president Jim Baumbick argues that “excluding them would weaken production inside the EU itself”.
Turkey is a low-cost manufacturing hub for Toyota, Stellantis, Hyundai and Renault. Cengiz Eroldu, president of Turkish automaker association OSD, says exclusion “poses a great risk to our country’s investment environment” and that inclusion “is a strategic necessity”.
But including Turkey could open a loophole for Chinese automakers to build plants there, saving on energy and labour while still qualifying for EU subsidies, said Chris Heron, secretary general of lobby group E-Mobility.
“It really is like walking on eggshells,” he said.
(Reporting By Nick Carey)
