Mobility Insights
What the EU Automotive Package Really Changes
As the European Commission sets out the next steps on its Automotive Package, attention turns to what the framework really changes and why it matters for Europe’s climate goals, industrial base, and strategic autonomy. Looking past the headlines, here are five reasons this shift is important.
1. It reopens innovation by shifting from prescription to technological neutrality
By moving away from mandating a single technological pathway, the framework allows multiple solutions to emerge in parallel. This is particularly important given that the previously favoured path is already largely dominated by China—effectively locking Europe into strategic dependence. Technological neutrality reopens the field to areas where Europe can still build leadership, from advanced battery materials and new chemistries, to hydrogen for intensive uses, circular economy models in transport, and AI-driven optimisation in robotics and mobility systems.
2. It preserves a high level of climate ambition
The framework maintains one of the most ambitious targets globally: a 90% reduction in fleet CO₂ emissions by 2035 compared to 2021 levels. The scale of the challenge remains substantial—despite recent progress, average CO₂ emissions from new cars in Europe declined by only around 8–9% between 2021 and 2024, highlighting how much still needs to be delivered over the next decade.
3. It allows a gradual transition
Decarbonising transport is not an overnight switch—it is an industrial and societal transformation that needs to move fast while managing real-world complexity. The framework recognises that a transition phase is often what enables faster progress in practice. By allowing efficiency gains, diverse use cases shaped by local realities, and time for technologies to mature, it supports change that can scale. China itself took more than two decades, with iterative policy adjustments, to build its current industrial position in electric vehicles.
4. It creates room to build European competitiveness and a “Made in Europe” ambition
The framework implicitly supports the idea that decarbonisation should also reinforce European industrial capacity. By avoiding technological dogmatism, it enables European players—OEMs, suppliers, startups, and researchers—to scale solutions domestically before competing globally. The objective is not protectionism, but critical mass, learning curves, and sovereignty: ensuring Europe is not reduced to assembling imported technologies, but remains a leader across key segments of the value chain.
5. It broadens the innovation perimeter beyond automotive alone
Transport decarbonisation is a system-level challenge. The framework leaves room for innovation across sectors where Europe has strong foundations: sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) for aviation, wind-assisted propulsion and fuel switching in shipping, energy-efficient logistics, and software-led optimisation across fleets and infrastructure. This openness increases the chances of building European champions across mobility and energy, rather than betting everything on a single solution.
Bottom line: By combining ambition with pragmatism and technological openness, the framework turns transition constraints into an opportunity to build durable industrial leadership and strategic autonomy.
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