Automobile: France will be electric, reaffirms Bruno Le Maire

The Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire reaffirmed on Monday the “resolute choice of the electric car” for French industry. “I say it to all the political parties who say that we absolutely must continue to develop thermal energy: it is the best way to catch up and serve foreign interests,” the minister stressed at a press conference. .

As part of this 2024-2027 sector contract, signed Monday by the industry and the government, France will accentuate its shift towards electric cars over the next three years, with a target of 800,000 sales from 2027. But Voices are being raised on the right and the far right, as the European elections approach, to denounce an electric shift that is too tense, between vehicles that are still expensive to purchase and a complicated transition for the industry.

For Bruno Le Maire, “to persist in the thermal vehicle, as certain political groups propose, is to be tied hand and foot” with “the oil producing countries” on the one hand and “the major manufacturers (foreign, Editor’s note) who are totally committed to electric vehicles and will sell them on French territory. The minister also reaffirmed the objective of producing two million electric and hybrid vehicles in France by 2030, while production only reached 1.5 million vehicles, all energies included, in 2023.

There are ten years left before the European deadline of 2035, when 100% of new cars must be electric, and “it is not when we succeed in this transition that we change tack”, underlined Bruno Le Mayor. On the other hand, it is “indispensable” that “these national choices become European choices” in favor of the energy transition, and “much remains to be done”, according to the minister. At his side, the representative of manufacturers and equipment suppliers, Luc Châtel, called on the automobile industry to prepare a “European pact” between the automobile industry, the Commission and the States, with commitments on competition rules, investment, or training.

“We approached the subject from the wrong end, we chose change through regulation and not through innovation, or through the market,” underlined the president of the Automotive Platform. Bruno Le Maire also called for “solidarity” in the sector, while there is “still too much brutality in the relationship between the principals”, i.e. the manufacturers and the large equipment manufacturers, “and the sub-contractors”. treaters”.