EV come, EV go

Assuming that using widescale intervention to build the car industry is a desirable goal (I have doubts), is a pan-EU industrial policy for EVs possible? Well, here’s one intriguing plan, from Sander Tordoir, Nils Redeker and Lucas Guttenberg, published by the Jacques Delors Centre think-tank.

The plan here is essentially to universalise across the EU the French model of tying consumer EV subsidies to the manufacturing carbon footprint of the car being bought (not its own emissions profile while being driven), which would have the effect of excluding Chinese cars. There would also be reciprocal deals with trading partners similarly worried about Chinese competition.

Optimistically, the authors claim this buy-European plan is WTO-proof. I think there would have to be some pretty high bars to be cleared to prove that the carbon criteria being used were actually clearly targeted at climate change rather than simply favouring domestic production.