Clepa, the European Association of Automotive Suppliers, commented The EU taxonomy regulation – the classification on EU scale for sustainable activities – declaring that this regulation aims at directing investments towards sustainable commercial activities. This means that, over the incoming years, the sustainability level of each business activity will influence its access to funding.
The European Commission has presented new proposals for delegated acts that amend and complement the classification scheme for sustainable business activities. «CLEPA welcomes this initiative and sees the delegated acts as a step forward in the acknowledgment of automotive suppliers’ contribution to a sustainable economy and their role in the advancement of green mobility in the EU. Originally, the taxonomy regulation did not recognise the economic activities related to the production of e-mobility components as “sustainable”, while the assembly of electric vehicles was considered as such. The proposed amendment to the Climate Delegated Act incorporates the production of powertrain components including e-motors, power electronics, thermal management and braking systems in its definition of sustainable economic activities. The circularity chapter of the Delegated Act on non-climate environmental objectives gives much-needed recognition to the sustainability contribution of some aftermarket-related activities, but so far excludes the design for circularity and remains ambiguous on remanufacturing actions by automotive suppliers. As a result, critical activities by automotive suppliers remain at risk of being overlooked by capital markets and could suffer from underinvestment. The use of low carbon/recovered materials, lightweighting, and product robustness should be considered in future revisions of the taxonomy».
Hence, the reflection that many automotive supply companies continue to face competition with OEMs, who can claim eligibility for the revenue generated by a sold vehicle whose value is generated by all components, while the manufacturing activities of a large share of these components remains non-eligible.
