With Europe’s automotive industry battling strong competition from China, belligerent US trade policy, and a general reluctance among car buyers in the EU to switch to electric vehicles, the continent’s carmakers and some politicians are pushing back against a planned ban on the sale of combustion engine vehicles from 2035.
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Calls from Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for the ban to be postponed or relaxed have been welcomed by industry leaders in Slovakia, which is the largest per capita car producer in the world.
“The rules of the Green Deal were written in a completely different world – before all the crises that have occurred since 2019,” Viktor Marušák, Secretary General of the Automotive Industry Association of the Slovak Republic (ZAP), told The Slovak Spectator.
“If European policy does not adapt to reality, there is a risk that the European automotive industry will lose its competitiveness and part of its production will move outside the EU,” Marušák warned. “The goal of carbon neutrality must be preserved, but the way we achieve it must be realistic and technologically open.”
Vehicle production in Slovakia is already moving towards electromobility.
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Carmakers in Bratislava, Trnava, Žilina and Nitra – all so-called original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of foreign automotive brands – have been manufacturing battery-powered and plug-in hybrid vehicles, alongside those with combustion engines, for some time, and plan to continue producing all three types of powertrains at least until 2035.
Volvo, for its part, will soon start producing the electric Polestar 7 SUV at its new plant in Košice.
However, carmakers say the transition to electromobility requires clearly defined framework conditions from the state – a stable foreign policy orientation and an environment that motivates investors.
The current reality, though, is quite the opposite.
