Europe’s automotive suppliers are responsible for a massive 75% of a vehicle’s total value. However, an increasingly unfair global playing field is putting up to 350,000 local jobs at immediate risk, highlighting the vital need for the EU to urgently regain its strategic autonomy. As negotiations on the new Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) advance, CLEPA is calling on the European Parliament and Council to maintain a robust definition of what qualifies as a “European vehicle”.
CLEPA has published a new position paper outlining a targeted roadmap for policymakers. Beyond anchoring value creation in Europe, the paper details how to close loopholes that allow trade circumvention, establish realistic thresholds to counter global cost distortions, and align support mechanisms across the board. The IAA is not the silver bullet, other structural measures need to be considered in order to keep the core of automotive innovation firmly anchored in Europe.
Our key recommendations are:
- Maintain high local content requirements (minimum 70% threshold) for defining a ‘European vehicle’,
- Ensure that the framework applies a targeted and risk-based approach to all trade partners, supporting genuine industrial cooperation, including UK and EFTA countries,
- Align vehicle eligibility across all mechanisms including tying super-credits to at least 70% EU content,
- Ensure that cheaper non-EU vehicles do not bypass Union-origin requirements by setting the ‘escape clause’ too low,
- Lower the eligibility threshold for Foreign Direct Investment in the battery and EV value chain to reflect industrial realities,
- Expand the scope of measures to cover a larger share of the market.
Download the full paper to find out more!
