Cars, De Meo: “The EU regulation of the last 20 years has failed”

MILAN – "European regulation has failed over the last 20 years and now we want to find the silver bullet that solves everything, with the story of electric." This was stated by Renault CEO Luca De Meo, speaking at the event 'Innovate to return to growth. Overcoming crises, building the future of businesses and work', underway at Kilometro Rosso in Bergamo.

“Rules pushed by Germans”

"The regulation was pushed by the Germans, who wanted to make cars more complex because it was convenient for them - De Meo underlined - since they take premium cars but this has had a devastating effect on some producing countries, like France and Italy and a bit Spain, where people buy small cars either because they don't have money or because they can't fit in the cities. We have to go back to making small cars, we don't do it because the regulation makes them totally unprofitable".

"We had to add safety features for 400 euros per car, if you put them on a Twingo it's a lot of money, on a large sedan instead it's little", De Meo said again "Of these provisions - he continues - we have 8 in the next few years. For years instead I have been saying to foresee a different regulation for small cars, as is done in Japan like the 'K cars'". "Something like that - he underlined - would restart Italy, France and Spain". "For the R5 and R4 and for the next Twingo we had to work miracles to lower the prices - he concludes - including looking for components in China, which however we should be able to do in Europe".

“Engineers understand more than regulators”

"The theme we are pushing for is to say let's leave the creativity to engineers to be able to find solutions. The enemy is not one technology or another but CO2 and polluting products. It is difficult for a regulator to know more than an engineer what the best solution is. Let's leave the best solution to engineers to be able to reduce the impact of CO2", said De Mieo

"Everyone tells us that in 70% of cases, electric cars have a lower impact than combustion-engined cars, in general, including hybrids - the top manager underlined -. Electric cars certainly have a positive impact on the environment, it is worth continuing to invest in this technology, especially for small cars, in urban mobility and in commercial vehicles". Then he added: "I would like to clarify that electric is good for the environment, considering everything".