Auto green, tomorrow the future will be decided
A bit like Greta Thumberg protesting these days against wind turbines because they disturb the reindeer, the debate in Brussels on the electric car, which resulted in the ban on the sale of diesel and petrol cars from 2035, is based on the same basic assumptions. A certain environmentalist demagoguery fed by one gauche caviar desperately looking for a new identity, but increasingly distant from the mass of economically fragile citizens it should represent.
It is no coincidence that the electric car has proved to be the perfect vehicle on which to embark socialists, greens and the like. A road which, given the numbers in the community hemicycle, immediately appeared to be going downhill with a lot of transnational toast last February 15 to the final approval of the law by the European Parliament.
Will Germany back down?
But it was celebrated too soon. To stop the green march towards the sun of the future Germany could take care of it, surprisingly. Berlin, a few hours before the final ratification of the provision by the EU ambassadors (a formality, according to most), had come out with its not which reshuffled the cards forcing the Brussels authorities to decide to postpone the vote.
The count is scheduled for tomorrow, but the more the hours go by, the more probable a new slip appears. What will happen? Most observers do not expect a sharp split. It is very difficult for the foundations of the plan to be renegotiated. Germany itself does not want to tear up the treaty but is asking for derogations and that is why Europe is trying to stall for time. The exceptions requested by Berlin, then, are none other than those on which the Italian “no” already announced by the Meloni government is based.
All the problems of the electric car
Common sense remarks. Starting with the defense of jobs put at risk by a forced transition to green (in Italy alone, according to the unions, 200,000 will lose their jobs). But then there is the big issue of raw materials on which the electric car industry is based: China has a near monopoly on battery and microchip components. This will give the dragon an extraordinary competitive advantage both in terms of the number of cars produced and, above all, in terms of price.
An invasion of Chinese cars (which is already happening) with low-cost cars, could shake the accounts of European manufacturers already grappling with the difficult transition to green. And there is still the whole theme of a decision that rewards only the electric. Why, one wonders, not also evaluate other technologies that already exist to achieve zero emissions?
Not less important, the theme of the network of refueling stations which appears to be lacking (and it will be difficult to achieve true coverage of the entire European territory in just over ten years). Finally, those who criticize the EU ultimatum point out that the ban on the sale of internal combustion engine cars could, paradoxically, increase pollution. In fact, anyone who doesn’t have the money to buy an electric car, which costs on average a third more than the traditional one, will keep the old and increasingly polluting car.
All issues, these, welcomed in Brussels with a shrug of the shoulders. But that weigh like a boulder on today’s vote.
As we said, a change of course is unlikely. But, whatever happens, what has happened in these two days appears as an absolute novelty in the European panorama. Even a small compromise on the electric car could act as a lock for future decisions on the environment. The more extremist ecological component that has gained weight on the left in Brussels as in Rome will have to reflect on this.