Tavares tells EU: no more disruption

Stellantis boss says e-fuel exemption risks wasting vast investment in electric vehicles

- MARK TISSHAW

Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares has called on government legislators to stick to a set of stable future regulations for the car industry and not do anything that adds "confusion to chaos".

Speaking to Autocar on a visit to Vauxhall's van factory in Luton, Tavares was reacting to the European Union's new plan to allow ICE cars that use synthetic e-fuels to be exempt from a law that will allow only EVs to be sold new from 2035.

Tavares said he welcomed e-fuels as a way to power the 1.4 billion ICE cars that will remain on the roads even if a full switch is made to electric power for new car sales.

However, he highlighted that the broadening of legislation to exempt e-fuels undermined the regulatory path already set towards EVs at the very time when investments and implementation plans had been set for the next 20 years.