CLEPA, Europe’s automotive supplier trade association, says that Europe’s ambition to lead the global electric vehicle (EV) transition is facing a ‘structural investment drought’ and that the gap with Chinese competitors is widening.
CLEPA cites new data that it says reveals that between 2021 and 2026, investment by EU automotive suppliers remained entirely stagnant
In stark contrast, Chinese investment in the sector surged by 57%, creating an ‘asymmetrical global playing field that threatens Europe’s industrial backbone’. While European suppliers have consistently committed capital to the transition, they are hitting an economic wall, CLEPA maintains. It says unprecedented structural production costs, fragmented supply chains, and regulatory headwinds in Europe are ‘choking the ability to scale innovation competitively’.
This is also due to a regulatory and economic environment that currently ‘penalises local scaling while global competitors accelerate with massive state backing’. According to Oxford Economics data, EU automotive suppliers kept annual spending on factories, machinery, and technology largely flat at around US$42 – 43 billion, between 2021 and 2026. However, China moved in the opposite direction, increasing investment by 57% over the same period to reach roughly US$115 billion by 2026.