European Electric Car to Stand Up to Tesla and Chinese BEVs

Volkswagen, Renault, and Stellantis are thinking of joining forces to create a European electric car. This was reported by the Bloomberg news agency. It specifies that the goal will be to join forces and minimize costs to create a low-cost electric car capable of competing against Chinese-made battery electric vehicles and against Tesla. The European competitors are actually far more advanced in the development of electric-powered vehicles.

For now, it’s a rumor that, if confirmed, will lead to an alliance similar to Airbus. The aviation company, based in Leiden, Netherlands, was born in the late 1960s as a consortium of France’s Aerospatiale, Germany’s DASA, and then Spain’s CASA and Britain’s British Aerospace. The aim was to counter the American manufacturers Boeing and McDonnell Douglas, and today Airbus is one of the biggest international players in the aviation industry. Renault CEO Luca De Meo allegedly called it the “automotive Airbus.”

Meanwhile, on February 20, the Franco-Italian group Stellantis committed to invest in the historic Italian factory Mirafiori, which will become the center for sustainable mobility. On the same day, ACEA (European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association) published data on the European automobile market for January 2024. There has been a recovery in new car registrations since the downturn recorded in December 2023, with registrations up 12.1% year-on-year to 851,690 units.

As for electric vehicle sales, the report recorded that they grew 28.9% to 92,741 units in January 2024, with an overall market share of 10.9%. Double-digit growth was seen in Belgium (+75.5%), the Netherlands (+72.2%), France (+36.8%), and Germany (+23.9%).