Luca de Meo’s open letter offers concrete proposals for a competitive, low-carbon European automotive industry.
20 Mar 2024 | 8980 Views | By Autocar Professional Bureau
Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo has set out his vision for a thriving European automotive industry in an open letter to political leaders.
Writing with just a few weeks to go before the European elections, de Meo’s letter calls for a European mobilisation to collectively succeed in the ...
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Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo has set out his vision for a thriving European automotive industry in an open letter to political leaders.
Writing with just a few weeks to go before the European elections, de Meo’s letter calls for a European mobilisation to collectively succeed in the automotive industry's energy transition.
“Before the electoral campaign gets under way with its attendant arguments, I wanted to make my voice heard, not to get involved in policy but to contribute to a decision on the right policy,” writes de Meo.
He also explains why this period of unprecedented transformation can be the springboard for an industrial renewal in Europe, by developing inter-sectoral cooperation and leading large-scale projects between the public and private sectors.
“With Airbus, we have already seen what Europe can do,” says de Meo. “By stepping up co-operative initiatives, we will set our industry on the road to revival.” More than a plea, this letter to Europe is a roadmap.
de Meo sets out his diagnosis, recalling the importance of the automotive sector not only for the economy, but also for the European way of life, which today faces an unbalanced competition: “The Americans stimulate, the Chinese plan, the Europeans regulate,” he comments.
Urges Europe to invent a hybrid industrial policy
The Renault Group CEO formulates seven recommendations and eight measures to develop a genuine European industrial policy which is competitive and decarbonised: “Europe must invent a hybrid model,” he adds, for example by involving “Europe’s 200 largest cities in the decarbonisation strategy” by setting up an “industrial Champions League” to reward players committed to the transition, and by establishing “green economic zones” that would concentrate investments and subsidies for the energy transition.
As the vanguard of the electric revolution, the Renault Group CEO also proposes the launch of ten major European projects in strategic areas that go far beyond the automotive sector alone: promoting small European cars, of course, but also revolutionising last-mile delivery, developing charging infrastructures and V2G technology, increasing Europe’s competitiveness in semiconductors, and more.
Convinced that “the ecological transition is a team sport” and that “the European automotive industry could rapidly emerge as the solution to the challenges facing the continent,” de Meo’s Letter to Europe calls on political decision-makers, town councillors, European citizens, NGOs and players in the energy, software and digital sectors to mobilise and work together to create a new mobility ecosystem in Europe.