ABOUT

Automotive Industry Forum 2019 is focused  to highlight the main income to GDP by automotive industry in Romania. 
The automotive industry means more than 230,000 jobs and a turnover of over 28 billion euros.

The Automotive Forum was a major event on the agenda of the Ministry of Economy, under the presidency of the Council of the European Union, which was attended by Prime Minister Viorica Dancila, European Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs Elzbieta Bienkowska, the Deputy Prime Minister Gracela Gavrilescu, Minister Radu Oprea and the high representatives of Dolj County and Craiova County authorities, as well as the presence of Romanian MEPs, high-level representatives from the industry and the business environment.
The automotive industry forum has brought to light the trends in this sector towards electrification, the reduction of pollutant emissions, the automation and the connection of vehicles.
The technological achievements and the investment efforts announced by the representatives of the national automotive industry were appreciated, the Romanian Government being alongside the national industry in this process of transformation and development complex.
A note was taken of the Roadmap to Clean Vehicles addressed to Member States and presented by Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska stipulating that the industry must implement measures with long-term effect that allow for switching to automated and connected vehicles without pollutant emissions.
There was talk about the need for transport infrastructure and power networks for electric vehicles and about the actions needed to transform the industry.
It has been mentioned that the development and production of electric batteries for the automotive industry is a project of European interest in which Romania wants to get involved as much as possible in order to actively contribute to the development of automated and connected electric vehicles.
Following the Panel discussions, bringing together prestigious representatives of European and national industry, a series of key ideas emerged:
• Competitiveness is not an option, it is an objective that we can achieve by improving production processes, standardization, and professional qualification,
• Innovation, research, digital transformation and automation contribute directly to competitiveness,
• A stable and predictable legislative framework is needed to enable industry to adapt to its requirements,
• Human resources policy is a strategic element in competitiveness.
• The Brexit process will require special attention to addressing industry and trade balance.

AGENDA

Agenda

IMAGES

“Last year, the share of car exports in country total exports was of 17.4%, while imports accounted for only 10%. After the steady growth in recent years, 2018 was an extraordinary year for the automotive industry. Romania gain record production of cars last year, a 30% increase over the previous year, a strong signal of confidence for the Romanian’s economy and the environment. The Government of Romania is firmly committed to continuing and developing policies and projects to support industry and automotive components, respecting international trends and the concern to meet the expectations of this area ” said Prime Minister.

“The Government is encouraging fleet decarbonization and purchases of green vehicles. ” said Prime Minister.

Future decarbonization measures will consists of: limited acces to center areas with any ICE vehicles and emission taxation.

Rabla Plus 2019 – Similar to 2018, incentives on buying electric vehicles will remain unchanged:

• 45 000 lei incentives on buying a full battery electric vehicle M1, M2;
• 20 000 lei incentives on buying a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle M1, M2;
• 6 000 lei incentives on buying a hybrid electric vehicle M1, M2;

Incentive program Rabla Plus overview from the last 3 years. PEVs requirements:

Infrastructure incentive program : up to 40 000 eur for a fast charging 50kW DC station for municipalities.

Work in progress for a new infrastructure incentive program for any applicants.

Work in progress for a funding scheme for CNG and LPG refilling stations.

Rabla Classic is functional form more than 15 years. From 150 000 registered vehicles in 2018 , more than 49 000 were because of this program.

Funds allocation for buses and trolleys will cease in 2019.

NOTES

• ICE will continue to be present. VW estimates that the EV market will have only 30% by the end of 2030.
• it is not the point to switch today from ICE but to understand that we have to do something about it
• main focus of the commission are the vehicles that have not been produced as they should have, we should focus in about implementing the rules
• the commission is not putting the blame on the industry, a document has been done in the past 3.5 years focused on changing the attitude and the mindset
• only 2 EU states have clean all the fleet, majority neither 50%
• the commission roadmap is to set up a very clear benchmark that we want to see done by the end of the year and do discussions with the member states, they can get help and ask the commission to look in the regulatory framework
• improve the performance of the cars, euro 6 norms should encourage the cleaning of vehicles – point of export of non-performing cars to central and east of Europe. We have to discuss within the member states with this rage of instruments; there is not by coincidence that non-performing cars are moving to central-east Europe where there isn’t that much of financial power
• the commission is focused on the consumer; industry manufacturers should act more on the consumer side to encourage cleansing the fleets
• the commission is just the guidance the power is still to the member states, so commission thinks the best way to answer car taxation of the non-performing are the member states
• taxation and production of cars not as we should do is not a discussion of enforcing harmonization is all about being serious
• the commission is thinking of a new regulation term regarding 2016 to 2022, regulatory powers of the commission to decide and appeal and consider restoring commodity factors
• heads of the parliament and the member states will decide if the conformity factors will stay
• BOSCH have substantial research on hydrogen powered trains for heavy duty vehicles, estimations are that in 2050 25% of the heavy duty vehicles will be electric

DEBATES

• electrical grid not ready for charging hundreds of thousands of electric vehicles
• infringement procedures on 3 cities because air quality
• no heavy duty program, no incentives, no work on this sector
• car manufacturers add every year per car manufactured equipment in value of thousands of euros due to their need to respect regulations, car manufacturers are also required do drop down the prices
• in 2020 European automotive industry will drop to 60%, our cars will not be ready to respect the regulations, time is too short to implement regulations
• the commission must be ferm in defending its own decision
• European cities take Commission to court over air quality in landmark case and wins, the commission needs to be ferm or there will be instability
• autonomous driving need to have consistent infrastructure and 5G networks, Romania lacks of infrastructure
• diesel will not die, it still have a future on vessels and other applications – large investments in developing diesel ICE with very low emissions < 13mg NOx
• the need of M3 vehicles in the middle of the city, CNG or LPG vehicles should be on more focus
• faster need to look up on the next regulatory set, including alternative fuels, ammonia, GNC, NTO and understanding that heavy duty vehicles have different missions