EU Slashes EV Tires Amidst EV Sales Growth

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Last Updated on: 1st April 2025, 08:17 pm

The European Union (EU) seemed like it could be the world’s EV sales leader for a while. The US had Tesla and had some good (for the time) EV sales rolling a decade ago, but then the EU started getting quite serious about cleaning up transport and looked like it could sprint ahead as the world’s EV sales leader. Well, it did sprint ahead, but then China took the torch and left us all in the dust. Of course, the EU is still well ahead of the US, but EV sales have only jumped as the EU has essentially required that automakers sell more of them.

The key here is not that the government has mandated that people buy EVs. Nothing like that is happening. But when automakers are required to clean up their fleets, surprise, surprise, it turns out they can find more EV buyers than they previously claimed!

As CO2 emissions reduction requirements have increased, EV sales have grown — because automakers had to try harder, had to produce more EVs, and thus found more EV buyers.

The problem at the moment is that the EU just decided to water down these regulations. The next step up in requirements was supposed to be this year. Automakers whined and moaned about it, as they always do, claiming that they wouldn’t be able to hit the targets (as they always do). This time, instead of holding strong and sticking to the CO2 reduction plan, the EU has given in a bit.

“The EU Commission today formally proposed legislation to give carmakers until 2027 to comply with their 2025 emissions reduction targets,” T&E writes. “The delay to EU car climate rules must mark the final concession to European carmakers which used unrepresentative 2024 sales data to argue for flexibilities, T&E has said. T&E believes the concession is a mistake as it was made despite battery electric car sales in Europe increasing by 28% over the first two months of the year as the industry prepared to comply with the existing 2025 target.” Indeed — because the EU waited a bit to go ahead with a watered down policy, we actually see that automakers were doing fine rolling out more EVs again!

Julia Poliscanova, senior director for vehicles and emobility supply chains at T&E, said: “The EV sales rebound shows that the existing EU target is working. Require carmakers to sell more electric cars and the buyers will come. It is a mistake to change the rules in the middle of the game. This must be the last flexibility carmakers are given. Let’s allow the 2030 and 2035 targets to do their work and bring affordable EVs and cleantech investment into Europe.”

The European organization emphasizes that this can’t happen again, and the EU needs to be firmer in requiring that automakers make the transition to cleaner vehicles. “T&E says lawmakers must allow the 2030 and 2035 targets to do their work and bring affordable EVs and clean tech investment to Europe.”

It’s a good point. Aside from today’s fight, which seems to be lost but can still be highlighted and argued against, the even more important matter is that this kind of watering down and delaying of critical transportation policies not become the norm. Policymakers can’t give in every time automakers whine about how hard it is to evolve. If they did, seatbelts and airbags still wouldn’t be required (who knows what kinds of discussions we’d be having about them) and cars would be much less safe, much dirtier, and much worse.

If government won’t stand up to corporate abuse, it is shirking one of its key duties.