CLEPA backs dedicated Automotive Joint Undertaking

CLEPA and industry partners have welcomed the European Commission’s proposal to establish a dedicated Automotive Joint Undertaking (JU) and a European Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Alliance as part of the Industrial Action Plan for the European automotive sector. The aim is to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness, technological sovereignty and sustainability, while supporting the objectives of the EU’s Competitiveness Compass.

As Europe’s leading investors in automotive research and innovation, automotive partners underline that closing the global innovation gap is essential to maintaining the sector’s competitiveness. By aligning industry resources with public funding, the proposed Joint Undertaking would help de-risk investments, accelerate the journey from research to market and support large-scale innovation across Europe’s automotive value chains.

The objectives of the Joint Undertaking are:

• Accelerate Automotive Innovation: reduce time to market by 50%.
• Foster Digital Innovation: foster innovation in digital technologies, enhancing competitiveness through AI, software-defined vehicles (SDVs), in-vehicle computing, connectivity, automation and data-driven solutions.
• Integrate Sustainability: integrate sustainability, affordability and environmental performance throughout the value chain, addressing carbon neutrality, life cycle assessment (LCA), the circular economy and resilience.
• Increase Research Capacity: enhance research and innovation (R&I) capacity for competitive automotive value chains throughout Europe.