2023-05-25 02:56:17
“Italy is showing the way, our positions are more and more widely shared”, assured Monday the Minister of Enterprises Adolfo Urso, a fervent defender of the national industry in the face of an “ideological vision” of climate change.
He thus commented on the common front of eight European countries, including Italy and France, against a future standard, called Euro 7, which toughens the conditions for testing polluting gas emissions from vehicles and should apply from 2025.
The EU proposal “is clearly wrong and is not even useful from an environmental point of view”, asserted the Minister of Transport Matteo Salvini, calling for a “blocking majority” to curb this project judged too expensive by the automotive industry.
Boss of the League (extreme right), he had already led the charge against the extinction of thermal engines in 2035, considered “madness” which “would destroy thousands of jobs for Italian workers”, for the benefit of China, in advance for electric vehicles.
After Germany’s last-minute threat to block this measure, Brussels paved the way in March for synthetic fuels demanded by Berlin without giving in to Rome’s demand to authorize biofuels to extend the life of thermal engines. .
According to experts, the technology of synthetic fuels, controversial and still in development, would concern only a minority of luxury vehicles, such as those of Ferrari, which welcomed the concession made by Brussels.
“Strong industrial lobby”
In Italy, “environmental and climate issues are always relegated to the background”, under the pressure of a “strong industrial lobby” in the automotive and energy sectors, deplores an official from Greenpeace Italy, Federico Spadini.
“None of the governments of recent years has been up to the environmental challenges. Unfortunately, Italy has not made itself known in Europe as a climate champion,” he told AFP.
For him, “it is certain that with the Meloni government, the situation has deteriorated”.
A red lantern in Europe, Italy saw electric vehicle sales fall 26.9% in 2022 and their market share only reached 3.7%, compared to an EU average of 12.1%. . Bonuses for the purchase of zero-emission vehicles proved to be a flop.
“There is no enthusiasm for electric cars in Italy. The offer is meager, with only one model manufactured by the national manufacturer Fiat”, notes analyst Felipe Munoz, from the firm Jato Dynamics.
In addition, “the purchasing power is not very high, people cannot afford electric cars which are expensive. So the demand is low, unlike the Nordic countries”, he explains to l AFP.
An opinion that is shared by the CEO of the Italian truck manufacturer Iveco, Gerrit Marx.
“We risk turning into a big Cuba, with very old cars that will continue to drive for many years, because part of the population will not be able to afford an electric model,” he fears.
Very late
In 2022, Italy had nearly 270,000 direct or indirect employees in the automotive sector, which weighs 5.2% of GDP.
The switch to all-electric could lead to the loss of more than 60,000 jobs in Italy by 2035 for automotive suppliers alone, according to their European association (Clepa).
“Italy no longer has a large automotive industry, since the absorption of Fiat by Stellantis in 2021, but it remains important in terms of components, which are all geared towards traditional engines,” Lorenzo Codogno told AFP. , former chief economist of the Italian Treasury.
Italy has fallen behind in terms of vehicle electrification, unions and the government have acknowledged.
“If the endothermic engine disappears overnight, we are not yet in a position to go all-electric,” fears Alberto Pastorello, regional secretary of the Uilm union.
“We are extremely behind, in Italy there are barely 36,000 electric charging stations compared to 90,000 in Little Holland”, also admitted Minister Adolfo Urso.
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