French government to ask Brussels to postpone sanctions against European carmakers that fail to meet CO2 emissions targets in 2025, announced Antoine Armandthe French Minister of the Economy, in an interview with Echos published on Sunday. “We need to stay the course on decarbonization and the 2035 deadline on the end of the combustion engine. But let’s not shoot ourselves in the foot!”declared the Minister in the columns of the newspaper.

“If we have to impose gigantic fines on manufacturers because they haven’t moved fast enough, the first consequence will be to weaken investment and above all to strengthen our Asian competitors.”he continued. “Manufacturers firmly committed to the electrification of vehicles should not have to pay fines in 2025: I will defend this position with Marc Ferracci to the Commission and our counterparts”.he assured us.

Antoine Armand will be attending the Eurogroup and Ecofin meetings in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday. Carmakers must comply with an annual average emission level per car sold in Europe. This standard, known as CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy), obliges manufacturers to sell progressively less polluting vehicles. So far, the standard has been generally respected, but it is due to reach a new level from January 2025.

Paris not considering sanctions

Antoine Armand had already indicated that the French government was “not considering” that carmakers would be sanctioned at European level for non-compliance with CO2 emission standards, but this discrepancy is something new that the Minister has introduced at European level with Marc Ferracci. “I don’t envisage sanctions being imposed when immense efforts have been made”. by the sector to become electrified, Mr. Armand had declared to professionals gathered at the Sommet de l’automobile, on the sidelines of the Paris Motor Show in mid-October.

On this occasion, Antoine Armand indicated that the government was exploring “all flexibilities (…) in coalition with our European partners (…) to avoid penalizing our manufacturers in their investments, precisely at the most crucial moment of their industrial transition.” Most European automakers have asked Brussels for urgent aid measures to help them cope with the 2025 tightening of CO2 emission standards, which they believe they will be unable to meet, particularly due to the erosion of electric car sales.