Edito
The Green Deal offers Europe the framework to lead in clean mobility. However, realising its full potential requires regulatory certainty, industrial strategy, and people-centred policies, write Kinga Timaru-Kast and Julia Poliscanova.
The European Green Deal, the flagship legislative package of the previous European Commission, has set Europe on a transformative journey toward clean mobility. It gave the continent a framework of what it needs to succeed in this transition. Agreements across the package were reached thanks to strong collaboration among sectors of the clean mobility ecosystem, from industries to civil society organisations. Such cooperation is paramount to ensuring this transition happens swiftly, competitively, and sustainably.
In recent months, the international competition in the e-mobility and batteries value chain race took another dimension. Looking forward to the starting European mandate, three pillars must stay clear in mind of policy makers: regulatory certainty and simplification, industrial strategy, and people-centred policies.
Creating an investment friendly continent
The success of the Green Deal lies in its comprehensive regulatory framework, including landmark measures such as the Battery Regulation, the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR), Energy Performance of Building Directives (EPBD), Renewable Energy Directive (REDIII), and the CO2 Standards for both cars and heavy-duty vehicles, not to mention later acts on critical raw materials and net zero industries. Implementation must now be the focus. These laws will provide the necessary infrastructure, clean energy, supply of clean vehicles, provided they are fully implemented and enforced. Implementation of these acts should come with simplification and streamlining of reporting requirements.
Any regulatory U-turns on the EU’s mobility decarbonisation objectives would destabilise and penalise industries already investing heavily in this transition. Additional, larger, investments into European clean industries are still needed from private sector stakeholders. But no investor will choose Europe without a clear path forward. A commitment to fully implement these measures, including at the Member State level, is critical to maintaining momentum and attracting future investments. Europe’s industries need stability to continue driving innovation and competing globally.
The Green Deal provides a good vehicle but the race on competitive clean mobility remains to be won.
An industrial policy taking full advantage of the e-mobility value chain
Regulatory frameworks must be paired with a robust industrial strategy, focussing on scaling up manufacturing projects and developing EU Green Deal secondary legislation designed to enhance, not undermine, European competitiveness.
Industrial policy needs to include public investment into clean technology – in particular in the entire clean transport value chain, lowering energy costs for manufacturing, and fostering a robust recycling value chain to harness the potential of “urban mines” from end-of-life batteries.
Simplifying permitting processes will unlock great renewable energy potential to decarbonise electricity and lower costs, facilitate the establishment or scale up of manufacturing or material processing sites and the roll-out of clean transport infrastructure.
Finally, Europe must also weigh in to ensure a level the playing field with global competitors in terms of subsidies and support mechanisms. For certain industries, level playing field can only be reached by matching competitors’ support: for examples, for battery manufacturing, the US IRA provides a significant op-ex support per kWh produced; for reskilling workers, massive support for training automotive workers is proposed.
Without these measures, the transition risks stalling under competitive pressures from other regions.
People-centred transition is key
The transition to clean mobility cannot succeed without addressing the needs of Europeans. Providing high-quality and future-proof job opportunities is a first step in including Europeans in the transition.
Europe’s new industrial policy approach must also include upskilling and reskilling programs, so that the European workforce is adequately trained to develop and deploy new technologies and thus ensure that the continent’s industries are future-proof.
Lifting the burden of transitioning and ensuring affordability of clean mobility is a second step. Electric vehicles will become more accessible, and even more so once there is a sufficient second-hand market. Considering that two-thirds of new vehicles are purchased by fleet managers, not by individual drivers, and owned for just three years, corporate fleet electrification mandates would accelerate the creation of a second-hand market by a decade.
Going beyond, technologies like vehicle-to-grid (V2G) and vehicle-to-home (V2H) can empower individuals to actively participate in the energy transition – and remunerate them to do so. Multiplying mobility options, by investing in safe infrastructure for light and actives modes, as well as in public transport and high-speed rail will help a lot more people embark on the clean mobility transition.
In summary, the new legislative mandate needs to go all in on electric mobility and clean tech, including taking it as an EU-wide reindustrialisation strategy brining Europeans along. 2025 will be decisive if the EU Green Deal is set on course to succeed.
As we step into this new year and legislative cycle, let us strengthen these priorities and demonstrate that the EU can not only lead in climate policy, but match it with equally effective industrial leadership. This is essential for Europe’s transformative journey toward clean mobility to deliver on prosperity and sustainability.