Roll on, youth! The 90th edition of the Paris Motor Show opens its doors to the general public, Monday October 14, after having defied the predictions about its announced death. “Paris returns to the center of the game with this 2024 edition”, welcomes Luc Chatel, president of the Automobile Platform. Two years after the last edition, and despite a few absentees like Jeep and DS (present in 2022), there are many returnees: Audi, Alfa Romeo, BMW, Citroën, Kia, Skoda are all manufacturers who have decided to make their comeback at the Porte de Versailles Exhibition Center in Paris. To convince them, the organizers adjusted the economic model of the event and formulated attractive commercial offers to manufacturers, who saw the price of their entry ticket drop.
To refuel, the Mondial can also count on the appetite of new Asian players for the European market. Alongside BYD, no less than six new Chinese contenders are coming to present their products: Forthing (brand of the Dongfeng group, former partner of Peugeot in the People’s Republic), GAC, Skyworth, Maxus, Aito (brand of the Seres group, equipped with technology of Huawei) and Xpeng. Despite the harmful customs barriers adopted against them for the next five years by the European Union, the ambition of these brands on the Old Continent remains intact. “Chinese electric vehicles are often stigmatized, but we offer the cheapest products on the market,” recalls Brian Gu, Vice President at Xpeng.
Good products, affordable and at the best technological level, are the key to potential success. But grabbing a few precious shares of the European market will require making itself known and establishing a solid brand image, which inspires confidence in drivers. This involves the creation of a network of dealers and after-sales. All this takes time and requires taking out the checkbook. Without guarantee of success: the Chinese group Great Wall Motor, which pulled out all the stops during the 2022 World Cup, will not make the trip this year, after closing its European headquarters amid disappointing sales.
A large product offensive
The arrival in numbers of Asian competition is enough to give Western manufacturers a cold sweat, whose percentage of electric vehicles in their sales mix is struggling to take off. At the end of 2024, they are (finally) deciding to launch a real electric offensive. If we look at French brands, it is clear that they will take advantage of this show to promote their electric vehicles, sometimes “Made in France”. At Stellantis, Peugeot will highlight its new generation 3008 and 5008 models, manufactured in Sochaux (Doubs), as well as its 408, now equipped with an electric engine, assembled in Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin). The Citroën brand will obviously highlight its new ë-C3 (manufactured in the Slovak Trnava factory) as well as its new C3 Aircross, C4 and C4X (assembled in Spain). As for Renault, it will continue its marketing offensive on its Scenic, R5 and R4 models (officially presented this Monday, October 14), manufactured in the North of France, in Douai and Maubeuge.
For the Lion and Chevron brands as well as the Diamond, it is essential that these new products, particularly the most affordable, find their audience. It is first and foremost a question of brand image and the ability to make consumers dream of the electric era, but above all it is an obligation to avoid losing out financially. Because if the commercial offensive for these vehicles arrives at the dawn of 2025, it is no coincidence. In Europe, the voice of regulations indicates to manufacturers the path to follow in terms of engines. However, on January 1, a new level of the CAFE (“corporate average fuel economy”) regulations, in force since 2021, will be reached: from now on, all cars marketed by a manufacturer will have to emit 15% less, i.e. , on average, less than 93.6 grams of CO2 per kilometer compared to 115 since 2021 (in the WLTP cycle). In 2030, the ceiling will be lowered again to 50 grams.
Beware of those who won’t hit the mark! If exceeded, the fines promise to be hefty. In the midst of a transition period where every euro counts, there is no question of manufacturers not respecting these rules. Less than three months before the application of the new scales, however, they are sounding the alarm and asking for leniency from the European legislator, citing a sluggish automobile market, marked in 2024 by a decline in the penetration of electric vehicles. Over the first eight months of the year, sales of battery vehicles represented 12.6% of European registrations, down 1.3 points compared to the same period a year earlier. In volume, this represents more than 80,000 battery vehicles that have not found a buyer.
The CAFE standard worries manufacturers
“If electricity remains at today’s level, European industry may have to pay a fine of 15 billion euros or give up production of more than 2.5 million” of units, calculated Luca de Meo. The general director of Renault has been regularly sounding the alarm on this subject for several months in his discussions in public or with the press. In essence, he asks the European legislator to show as much flexibility as Renault with its models and its industrial tools, constrained and forced to adapt. “Simply setting deadlines and fines without having the possibility of making that more flexible is very dangerous,” worries the Italian leader, also head of the European Manufacturers Association (Acea).
Another story with competitor Stellantis, whose boss, Carlos Tavares (but not his dealers) is opposed to any change in regulations. A posture which has the merit of being in line with the loud demands of industrialists for regulatory “stability” and “visibility”, but which is undoubtedly motivated by the fact that Stellantis will not be particularly in difficulty to comply with the CAFE standard in 2025. Which is less obvious for Renault… The subject promises to be debated on the occasion of the high mass of the Parisian automobile industry, which opens its doors to the general public from October 15 to 20.
Source: www.usinenouvelle.com
