ROME (ITALPRESS) – “We are aware that the auto sector is undergoing a phase of profound transformation, which first and foremost affects consumption patterns. Today, the car is no longer a priority for young people; this is something the sector has to deal with. There will be fewer cars, and goods will also increasingly be transported by other means. Also, the electric car needs fewer components and much of its value is in the battery. We know that this is a cultural revolution, not just an industrial one, which must take into account the new global political context. That is why it cannot be approached by imposing a single technology for which we do not yet possess the keys, let alone the raw materials needed to access it.” Thus, in an interview with Corriere della Sera, the Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso. “We have asked Europe for a review of the regulatory framework and the removal of the madness of fines that is forcing carmakers to close plants,” he explains. “We need an automotive plan with common resources to finance both the technological investments of companies and catch up with China, and purchase incentives, with a European Ecobonus, homogeneous and lasting over time. “Even Germany,” he adds, “now shares some of our proposals. The front is widening every day. It will be the first issue on President von der Leyen’s agenda, as she herself assured Giorgia Meloni. “Regarding the Stellantis plan, which includes 2 billion in investments by 2025 and 6 billion in purchases from Italian suppliers, when asked how it will be done to make sure that it will be so, he replies, “We have foreseen a working group that will make a periodic report to the automotive table on the execution of commitments and a shared management between the company and components to govern the transition in the best way.” In addition, Minister Urso believes it is important that Stellantis chairman John Elkann will go to Parliament, “because it confirms that he is looking at Italy. “The government,” he stresses, “in a difficult budgetary context, has made a significant effort, making available to the sector and the supply chain more than a billion euros in 2025 to support companies. Resources have been shifted from purchase incentives, which unfortunately do not work when introduced nationally, to supporting productive investments by companies. These resources are overall higher than those of the old automotive fund. It should be added that they are going in the right direction: that of production and labor. “And when asked what the EU Commission’s rethinking of Co2 emissions by manufacturers and the green deal might look like, he replied, “We have not given up and we have opened a breach. Now companies and unions are also moving. It’s a battle of Italy, not of a government, to overcome Green deal ideologies and make sure that we don’t go from net zero (zero net emissions, ed.) to zero industry.” “The ambition of full decarbonization by 2035 is not in question,” Urso stresses. “But on the other hand, a real European industrial suicide cannot be allowed to materialize. It is one thing to stop gasoline and diesel, which we agree with, it is another thing to stop thermal engines that can be powered, for example, by synthetic or biological fuels. Electricity is not a religion and technological neutrality is the best expression of the principle of freedom on which our Europe is founded.” Then, on gigafactories, “they are needed for Europe to achieve strategic autonomy on the production chain. We will change the European agenda on this as well.”- Photogram Agency -(ITALPRESS).
