EU under pressure as Stellantis urges reform ahead of key regulation deadline

On 17 November 2025, Stellantis Chairman John Elkann delivered a stark warning that Europe’s car industry might face “irreversible decline” unless the European Commission grants significant flexibility in upcoming emissions rules. The plea comes just weeks before the Commission is set to publish a major auto-industry regulatory package — a critical moment for manufacturers grappling with sluggish demand, shrinking margins and stiff competition from Chinese and American automakers.

Elkann proposed that instead of meeting the bloc’s 2030 emissions targets in a single year, carmakers should be allowed to average performance over a five-year window from 2028 to 2032 — mirroring flexibility the Commission recently granted for the 2025 targets.

He also called for a broad scrappage scheme to remove older, high-emitting cars from European roads, incentives for small-car production, and a regulatory framework that keeps plug-in hybrids, range-extenders, and alternative fuels viable beyond the current 2035 deadline for zero-emissions vehicles.

Stellantis says the demands are not a rejection of decarbonisation, but a response to stark market realities: consumer appetite for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) remains subdued across the EU relative to the investment needed to convert factories, while Chinese rivals are gaining ground with low-cost, feature-rich EVs that challenge European legacy VW or Fiat models.

Industry insiders believe the regulatory review due on 10 December will be pivotal. If Brussels aligns with requests for flexibility, it could stave off a potential collapse in production volumes and preserve thousands of jobs. But a hard-line stance risks deepening the crisis, triggering a wave of plant closures and accelerating off-shoring — fundamentally altering Europe’s automotive landscape.