Promoting affordable and sustainable mobility solutions

In the following article, I will explain to you the areas in which a consumer-oriented policy could be important for you as a driver:

Affordability

The switch to electric mobility required the automotive industry to make considerable investments. For this reason, among other things, in recent years a large proportion of the e-cars on offer have been high-quality models, for which the profit margin is significantly higher than for small and medium-sized cars. To promote the market for environmentally friendly cars and make it accessible to everyone, the range of affordable e-cars with sufficient autonomy and without compromising on vehicle safety must be significantly expanded across a wider range of models. This will ensure that individual mobility by car is maintained even for consumers with modest means.

In the future, electric mobility will need to be powered entirely by green electricity in order to achieve efficient decarbonisation. Significant investment is needed to generate green electricity and make it reliably available so that the operating costs of e-cars remain affordable for you as a consumer. Public charging stations should not charge excessive surcharges and roaming costs, but should instead ensure fair and transparent tariffs.

Right to repair

In 2024, the EU agreed on the right to repair. Until now, it was often only possible to replace a defective product instead of repairing it. In the future, consumers should also have the assurance, through the new legislation, that repairs can continue to be carried out by independent workshops under reasonable conditions. Another point is the right to have a repair carried out by a producer, even after the legal guarantee has expired. Crucial here would also be the reconditioning of traction batteries to ensure that adequate costs are provided for maintenance, repair or replacement of individual cells. The lifespan of electric cars could be significantly extended in this way.

In many cases, repairs enable consumers to save costs. A positive effect of recycling and repairing is the reduction of unnecessary waste. It promotes the circular economy, which is significantly more sustainable than the production of replacement products.

Fair digitalisation

Modern vehicles are highly networked. The data stored is of commercial importance to vehicle manufacturers and suppliers involved in the market. However, as the vehicle owner, you have control over this data. You must be able to decide who has access to it in order to prevent manufacturers from acquiring a monopoly in the future. To this end, independent workshops and automobile clubs should retain access to vehicle fault diagnosis and repair via the ‘On-Board Diagnostic’ (OBD). This is the only way to ensure that independent garage service providers can continue to offer competitive services to you as a consumer. For e-cars, an independent check of the operating status of the traction battery – as offered by the ACL Diagnostic Center – is essential. This check will become more important in the coming years with regard to a transparent used e-car market.
A recent FIA study shows that a lack of a repair regulation would lead to significant financial losses for consumers and the secondary market: the estimated economic losses for consumers and third-party market participants would amount to 26 billion euros per year by 2030 and 95 billion euros per year by 2050.

Calculating energy consumption and CO₂ emissions over the entire life cycle of vehicles/batteries

To provide you with an objective and realistic assessment of the environmental friendliness of a vehicle, the CO₂ emissions over the entire life cycle of a vehicle must be taken into account. This allows you to compare the sustainability of different models in a transparent way. The life cycle assessment (LCA) evaluates the full environmental footprint for the production, use and recycling of current vehicles over a lifespan of 16 years or a mileage of 240,000 kilometres. The interactive LCA platform ‘Green NCAP’ offers you several comparisons of different drive concepts in terms of their actual environmental impact. The tool is currently analysing a wide range of different vehicles. It can calculate assessments using standard data, for example by taking into account the European energy mix. In addition, it is possible to refine the analysis using your own energy consumption data. These include the annual mileage and the regional electricity mix, which is particularly interesting for long-term use. In the future, LCA will also be incorporated into legal requirements, for example in the manufacture of high-voltage batteries.

Technology neutrality

Current evaluations show that electric cars in particular generally have the best greenhouse gas balance. This will continue to improve in the future with the increasing use of green electricity. Nevertheless, the ACL advocates the support of technology-neutral concepts for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Alternative fuels should be among the measures employed.

The ACL will continue to advocate for you as a member for a sustainable and fair automotive market.