What Stellantis leaving EU lobby group means for car industry

The mask of unity presented by the European car makers’ lobbying association, ACEA, severely cracked earlier this month when Stellantis announced it was leaving to set up its own pressure group. As the second-largest member of the group, Stellantis was a key supporter of the organisation and also one of biggest funders via its undisclosed annual fee. So why did Stellantis leave, and what’s the future now for ACEA (short for Association des Constructeurs Européens d'Automobiles) in the face of differing opinions on how to tackle the shift to zero-emissions motoring? Stellantis didn’t give an official reason for leaving, but one source close to the company pointed to its increased clout since merging PSA and FCA in 2021 to create a 14-brand global behemoth. A company of Stellantis’ size can do plenty of heavy lifting on its own, CEO Carlos Tavares feels. For a man obsessed with cost-saving and synergies, it made little sense to pay an organisation for what you can do yourself. For Autocar Business webinars and podcasts, visit Autocar Business Live Given that ACEA spent between €2.5 million (£2.15m) and €2.75m (£2.36m) lobbying the European Commission in 2020 (according to LobbyFactsEU), it could be assumed that Stellantis’s share of that and the general running of ACEA wasn’t insignificant. The second clue to Stellantis’s reasoning was the name of the ‘forum’ it wants to establish in its place. The Freedom of Mobility Forum uses a phrase employed by Tavares when warning that the higher cost of electric cars will price the middle class out of motoring, assuming as it does that you’re truly free only in a private car. This forum will meet annually, with the first slated for the beginning of 2023, and aims to “bring together a diverse pool of experts working toward a common purpose: to address the key questions surrounding the debate on decarbonized mobility”. We’re promised just “facts, transparency and respect” from all participants and attendants, which could mean, interpreted using the double-speak translator applied to company-funded pressure groups, that things could get rowdy. The lofty ambition could be to create an automotive equivalent of the World Economic Forum (WEF), the organisation backed by global corporations that meets for its biggest event once a year in Davos, Switzerland. The WEF’s aim is to influence global trade and legislation by getting big names to say newsworthy things that will get heard by governments. Stellantis will be hoping the Freedom of Mobility Forum’s views will be amplified loud enough to be heard by the European Commission. Stellantis’s timing was interesting in that it came directly after the European Parliament’s decision in early June to aim for a 100% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2035. The decision, according to many car companies and automotive lobby groups, such as ACEA, goes too far in effectively banning ICE cars. That was certainly the view of ACEA. “Given the volatility and uncertainty we're experiencing globally day-by-day, any long-term regulation going beyond this decade is premature at this early stage,” ACEA chairman and BMW CEO Oliver Zipse said in a statement. ACEA is calling for a review halfway between now and 2035 to look at the targets again. However, ACEA’s unity was undermined by separate statements from the Volkswagen Group and Mercedes-Benz, both of which supported the 2035 cut, with the caveat that charging infrastructure must be in place first. The Volkswagen Group remains a key member of ACEA, but the amount that it spends lobbying the European Commission far outstrips that of ACEA itself, with the German company shelling out between €3m (£2.6m) and €3.25m (£2.79m) in 2020, according to LobbyFactsEU. Tavares himself will know exactly how effective ACEA’s lobbying is, given that he was president of the organisation between 2018 and 2019, which doesn’t bode well if he’s now shutting the door on it at this crucial time. ACEA’s clout has almost certainly been diminished by the Dieselgate scandal of 2015, which heightened politicians’ distrust of the car industry following Volkswagen's admission that it had cheated on emissions tests and the subsequent uncovering of similar schemes across the industry. ACEA was created in 1991, due to divisions within its predecessor organisation, the CCMC (Comité des Constructeurs du Marché Commun), that prevented the organisation from having a strong voice. The strongest voices these days come from automotive supplier organisations like CLEPA (standing for, deep breath: Comité de Liaison Européen des Fabricants d'Equipements et de Pièces Automobiles), which can really shout about the damage that they believe electrification will do to their businesses, because they aren’t consumer-facing. “With this [2035] vote, we risk a considerable relocation of the automotive industry,” stated Sigrid de Vries, CLEPA’s outgoing secretary general (and new head of ACEA). “It means limiting consumer choice, stifling innovation and losing our competitive edge.” The CCMC failed because it couldn’t agree on a common message for the industry issue of the day: allowing the Japanese wider access to the single market. One of those in strongest opposition was Jacques Calvet, CEO of Stellantis’ predecessor company, PSA. It would be quite a thing if Stellantis’s breakaway forum became the catalyst for the end of ACEA, too.