European lawmakers should loosen regulations for small cars. This is the word from Dacia CEO Katrin Adt, who argued that increasingly stringent rules are driving up vehicle prices and reducing the vitality of the automotive industry in the EU. Speaking to Autocar, Adt linked the market contraction to a growing burden of emissions and safety requirements, presenting them as key factors behind the price increases that today mainly affect accessible and volume segments.
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Dacia defends small cars
According to Adt, Europe has lost about three million cars since 2019 and the market has never returned to pre-pandemic levels. To better illustrate the economic impact, she recalled a series of ripple effects along the supply chain: from the 10 plants involved to millions of components such as tires, seats, and windshield wipers. In this context, Dacia’s top executive highlighted that a significant share of company resources is now absorbed by regulatory compliance. In particular, she indicated that a quarter of Dacia’s research and development budget and engineering workforce is dedicated precisely to meeting an increasing number of regulations, with about 107 additional measures to be satisfied by the end of the decade.
Regulations need to be loosened in the EU
Adt then proposed to foresee at least a freeze on new rules for small cars. The CEO also noted that some functions required by advanced systems end up translating into features that consumers perceive as less valuable. Along the same lines is Fabrice Cambolive, CEO of Renault, who spoke of a tsunami of regulations and called for a ten-year moratorium. This way, industrial efforts could focus on affordability and electrification.
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