Slapping Tariffs on China EVs Was the Easy Part for Europe
Europeans now have to fall in love with buying cars, not just making them.
Automakers need Europeans to fall back in love with the joy of the open road.
Photographer: Julien de Rosa/AFP/Getty Images
I’ve put in a lot of hours behind the wheel for fun this year. Not in real life; I live in Paris where most households, including mine, don’t own a car. I’m talking about Liberty City, the fictional setting of video game Grand Theft Auto. Leaving aside the wanton criminality, there’s no driving license needed, no traffic jams and no need to leave the house — what’s not to like?
Well, for under-pressure automakers descending on the French capital for the biennial Paris Motor Show, quite a lot. While oversupply fears prompted the European Commission to slap tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, now weak demand on the continent that gave us the VW Beetle and the Fiat 500 is the real worry. New car registrations are down, profit warnings from Volkswagen AG and Stellantis NV are piling up and jobs are on the line. Cost is the obvious alarm bell as pandemic conditions fade and EV subsidies get cut: Average vehicle prices for the top five European markets have risen 33% since 2019, according to Bloomberg Intelligence’s Michael Dean, while wages clearly haven’t kept pace.