European vehicle manufacturers are asking for a EUR40bn low-interest loan package plus scrapping incentives to help survive the current financial crisis and meet future CO2 emission requirements.
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The Association of European Vehicle Manufacturers (ACEA) said in a statement: “The economic downturn adds to already extensive pressure on car production in Europe, due to increasingly stringent regulatory requirements, in particular the pending CO2-reduction legislation, and could represent a serious backlash to the transition to low-emission vehicles on Europe’s streets.”
Its comments echo those made by top automaker executives at the Paris motor show last week.
ACEA said its suggestion was a ‘conceptual proposal’ and details would be worked out in coming weeks.
The ACEA proposal comes just after the US government agreed to make EUR17bn (US$25bn) in credit available for US vehicle manufacturers to help them get through the financial crisis.
“Carmakers face increasingly hesitant consumers and call on governments to respond, stimulate the economy, relieve the credit crunch and restore consumer confidence. Only then will consumers have the means and the confidence to invest in new vehicles”, said Christian Streiff, ACEA president and CEO of PSA Peugeot Citroën.
“The proposed loans package will give an important and welcome signal to consumers and financial markets.”
ACEA said a scrapping scheme for older cars would help accelerate the take-up of fuel efficient technologies and renew the car fleet . It says that in the EU15 countries, cars older than eight years account for 36% of the existing fleet and, if replaced with new cars, save about 20 megatonnes of CO2 a year, or 4.5% of total passenger car emissions.
Scrapping incentives have previously been used in some markets – such as Spain – to boost production when demand has been low.
