The manager of the Association of Official Dealers believes that the deadlines given by Europe for the end of combustion vehicles cannot be met
Following the European Union’s agreement on CO2 (carbon dioxide) targets for cars and vans, the European Manufacturers’ Association ACEA has urged European policymakers to step up the pace to implement framework conditions for zero-emission mobility.
An acceleration that, if possible, is more urgent in Spain, since our country is at the tail end of electrification in Europe. The automotive sector is critical to the industry in Spain, but also to dealers affected by the Covid-19 crisis and the war in Ukraine. The president of the Faconauto dealer association, Gerardo Pérez, analyzes these and other aspects related to mobility, production and car sales for ABC.
– Despite the decrease in sales due to the crisis (Covid, Ukraine), manufacturers continue to deliver positive results and even more profits. Is the same with the concessionaires?
Dealers have done a great job in all the crises that have come our way and this couldn’t be any other way. We solve it very well. We are very professional and highly concentrated organizations and we know how to organize our processes at times when there are fewer sales. Driving sales of new vehicles, used vehicles and most importantly leading after sales is what helps dealers deliver benefits we could never have imagined prior to this crisis.
– Vice President Teresa Ribero assured ABC that she understands that “the confusion of the citizen who wants to bet on an electric car and finds two problems: one that is very expensive and another that goes to the dealer and they recommend that he does not do. Do you share these statements?
It’s not true. Dealers and manufacturers have made major investments to initiate such a complicated revolution, a change in customer mindset as complex as moving from an internal combustion engine to an electric one.
Manufacturers have made more than 200 models available to consumers and dealers have launched a network of approximately 15,000 charging points in the 5,000 facilities we have spread across the national territory. The ones that haven’t really done their job are the public services and especially the government.
We have always been advisors to our customers and as you will understand it is very easy to prescribe an electric vehicle, and we do, in major capitals such as Madrid or Barcelona, where there are already some charging points. But it is very difficult for a commercial from Logroño, Écija or Linares to recommend the purchase of an electric vehicle if in some cases there is no charging point on public roads. The commercial will recommend the purchase of an electric in those areas where the public administrations have done their work stronger. That work is essentially to put chargers on public roads or facilitate their existence. The fact that it takes a year and a half for an administrative authorization to place a powerful charger on public roads does not help, but I don’t know if the minister knows that.
The minister’s statements show a great ignorance of the reality of the electric vehicle and especially of the consumer. Today, consumers are trying to pay their mortgage, go to the supermarket, get dressed and meet their basic needs. And when the minister asks all consumers to buy an electric vehicle, it is because she does not know the reality and that is disturbing.
– Do the concessionaires feel persecuted by the administration?
No, we do not feel persecuted by the tax authorities, but we do have the feeling that the tax authorities are prosecuting the combustion engine and, after all, it concerns consumers with a lower purchasing power.
The great revolution of the electric vehicle today can only be accepted by 15% of the population, that is, the population with an income of more than 30 thousand euros. The rest are unaware and perplexed because they can no longer change their car, they cannot have a less polluting and safer car and they have to go to the second-hand market where the big star is the vehicle that is more than 10 years old.
When we talk about the welfare state, we are talking about everything, including that you can travel safely with your family. And this government, with its policies, makes it difficult for the most vulnerable to buy a safer and less polluting car.
– Have the movements plans worked? What do you think these tools for purchasing fuel-efficient cars should be?
We cannot be satisfied with the functioning of the Moves Plan if there are many consumers who pay income tax before they get the incentive. The combination of 17 autonomous regions that make different plans and with different speeds means that not all Spaniards have the same opportunities to take advantage of these plans.
It is also true that most plans are used in major capitals and cities, while in empty Spain the operation is very different. It should be noted that some CCAA’s are doing very well and others are not and don’t seem to be interested. But then some of them punish the use of internal combustion engines in their cities.
– What incentives do you think are necessary?
The stimulus must be much deeper than he retrieved. For a revolution of this caliber, it is not worth giving an incentive buying a car for more than 50 thousand euros. That makes no sense. And also ask that a vehicle should browse when that customer has never driven a vehicle of those characteristics.
The incentive, as we said, would be that there would be no VAT on 0-emission vehicles and, in addition, there would be benefits for using these cars in cities. But especially the charging infrastructure of which, as we said, 350,000 points are needed and there are not even 20,000. We stand behind the whole of Europe, where in some cases they are already getting back for incentives because they are more than achieving their objectives. And in Spain it seems that they are not fulfilled because of the dealer … That answer from the minister is that it is not wasted …
– In Spain we have an increasingly older park. What measures should be taken to solve it?
It is clear that the two levers for which Faconauto has argued. In the first place, the decided lever of public charging infrastructure and Moves plans that the customer can deduct from his own income tax return, so that it has no influence on the tax before he receives the stimulans, as we said, this happens in many cases And second, a lever to buy combustion vehicles that the customer can still use until 2050 and scrap an old vehicle.
We cannot be proud of the oldest park in Europe, we cannot be proud of the most polluting park in Europe, we cannot be proud of the most unsafe park in Europe. And that is undoubtedly the responsibility of the government, that must take measures that work. We said from the first moment that this was not going to work and that’s just the way it is.
– Germany has decided to reduce its climate neutrality strategy, reduce stimuli for electric vehicles and to question the end of the commercialization of vehicles with combustion engine by 2035. Which mobility policy must be assumed in Spain?
The environmental policy of the European Commission is nonsense. And we have been saying it since the beginning. It is true that there are some countries where zero-emission mobility works, but not in southern Europe, especially in Spain. We must recognize that we are doing something wrong when the situation in Portugal is very different. Do the dealers recommend electric vehicles there?
If someone thinks we can stop selling burning in 2035 and stop using it in 2050 does not know what it is about. Unless we want many people not to own a car and not be able to have the freedom of mobility they have today. If so, it can be achieved. If we want every average Spaniard to have a low polluting and safe car, that will not happen in any way with the income we have now. But they are making predictions for 2035-2050 where none of the politicians we have now will continue and they will not be held accountable. We will be and remember that we were right.
Source: La Verdad
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
