Electric cars.. China’s way to strengthen its presence in Europe

Europe is a big market that is attracting Chinese cars as the shift to using renewable-powered cars is increasing in a European effort to save energy and meet climate targets.

During the first four months of 2023, the share of Chinese electric car brands in Europe increased to 7.3 %.

China, which is a leader in the electric vehicle industry, has many brands that have competitive advantages in terms of endurance, performance and safety metrics, and some of them are better at achieving digitization and providing a more luxurious driving.

Finland is one of the most promising European markets for Chinese electric cars, as it has pledged to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2035, and the country’s transport sector is responsible for producing 20% of carbon dioxide emissions, and half of these vehicles are private cars.

As the Finnish automotive sector aims to replace 25% of new cars using electricity or natural gas with conventional ones by 2025, the Finnish market holds opportunities for new Chinese cars with groundbreaking technologies in development.

According to the DPA, the EU aims to reduce emissions from new cars to zero, becoming the only electric cars allowed on European roads in this case, but the project provokes a split within the automotive industry.

Europe, which for more than a century has dominated the world’s most important car manufacturers and promoted innovation in this sector, is facing a lot of criticism due to its strong emission levels.

In the face of this emergency, the EU has strengthened its carbon dioxide reduction targets and is aiming to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

Since 2020, Europe has imposed on manufacturers a cap on car emissions of 95 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer, which was planned to be reduced by 37.5% by 2030.

The reduction rate could reach 60% in 2030, and then to 100% in 2035, these figures, which are still under discussion, will impose enormous restrictions on companies operating in the sector, as they will also be forced to comply by 2027 with new rules to tighten pollution standards imposed on heat engines.

The new rules will give preference to such vehicles and will push to abandon hybrid or hybrid cars that combine a gasoline engine and a battery.

The shift towards electric cars is worrying companies operating in the sector, which has 14.6 million people in the European Union and still relies heavily on transition technology.

The European Association of manufacturers emphasizes that the excessive acceleration of the transition to electric cars will raise car prices, eliminate jobs and strengthen China’s position in the competition, especially because it is more advanced in the field of battery production.

The Association revealed a major conflict within the Association of Automobile Manufacturers of Europe and in June 2023, the German brand Volkswagen announced that it would stop selling fuel-powered engines in Europe between 2033 and 2035.

For its part, the German car company Opel intends to limit the production of electric cars only in Europe by 2028.

Last July, the European Parliament passed the nature Restoration Act in an effort to strengthen European and international efforts to combat climate change and environmental pollution.

The law, which faced sharp divisions, was voted by 336 members of the European Parliament in favor of it, while 300 members opposed it, with 13 abstentions.

The law is one of the most important clauses of the EU Green Deal, which includes a wide program of measures and measures through which the Union aims to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.

The main objective of the law is to force member states to restore important parts of damaged ecosystems to good condition, including marine areas, forests, river channels, as well as some agricultural land, and expand green spaces.

By law, the measures must cover at least 20% of the land and marine areas by 2030, and by 2050 cover all ecosystems in need of restoration.

The provisions of the law were rejected by some economic forces, as it would hinder agricultural activity based on the bulldozing of land to transform it into productive farms.

Climate change is behind an extremely hot weather wave that Europe is experiencing as countries across Europe are experiencing an extreme heat wave, and unprecedented temperatures are expected to be recorded in some areas and in Spain, temperatures have reached over 40 degrees Celsius.

Health authorities are warning of the dangers caused by extreme heatwaves, making tackling climate change, especially by reducing emissions, a goal for European officials.