China was preparing the automotive seat while Europe was confident. Now Macron calls for protectionism to defend European industry

France  has been seeing the wolf's ears for  a while  . In a country with such a big car industry,  Chinese cars  arriving in Europe pose a particularly worrisome threat. Gallic politicians are aware of this and want to act before it is too late.

The possible solution? Protectionism  . In the same way that the United States imposes a protectionist model on brands, France could bet on the same formula to not lose its footing in the face of an increasingly powerful Chinese automotive industry. A few weeks ago,  the French Minister of the Economy spoke about  it and it is now the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, who defends this idea.

European aid for European cars

Recently, the  French Minister of Economy  , Bruno Le Maire, came out in favor of protectionism and proposed that aid for the purchase of new cars provided by European countries should be allocated exclusively to models manufactured on our continent.

From now on, it is the President of France,  Emmanuel Macron  , who is leaning towards a protectionist strategy. According to the press , the French political leader made some statements on the France 2 television channel in which he calls for a European purchase law to defend the European automotive industry from China, but also from the United States.

“We need a European law on purchasing like the American law, we must reserve our help for our European manufacturers. You have China protecting its industry, the United States protecting its industry, and  Europe being an open house  ,” Macron said.

For the moment, these are just a few statements, but Macron could try to concretize his idea in a law during the next months. He could even  seek accomplices  among the leaders of neighboring countries.

For now, according to the newspapers, an adviser to the French government has indicated that Macron and  Olaf Scholz  , the German Chancellor, have agreed to prepare a response to American protectionist measures after the agreement they held yesterday in Paris.

And it is that China has become a very serious threat to European car manufacturers. The automotive sector moves billions of euros on our continent every year; Until now, European brands took the biggest slice of the pie and coexisted peacefully with American, Japanese and South Korean brands. But the situation is changing radically with the arrival of  Chinese brands  .

As Western cars become more expensive and the European Union continues to take steps to  kill off diesel and gasoline engines , China has years of electrification experience and is profiting from the transition. energy from our continent to enter our territory with  heavy artillery .

In recent months, several Chinese brands have entered our market, all with  electric cars . Some try to impose themselves by its good value for money, like MG, while others dare to play directly in the premium segment without any complex in the face of brands like Audi, BMW and Mercedes, as is the case with NIOs  and  BYDs . _ 

The third way for Chinese brands is to buy directly from European companies. Geely  , which is set to be the  new Volkswagen Group , has already acquired Volvo, Lotus, half of Smart and  part of Aston Martin , while SAIC owns MG.

With this panorama, it is logical that European brands are uneasy, but European politicians also have reason to be worried, despite the fact that they keep  shooting themselves in the feet  at each  new anti-pollution regulation .

In  the United States  , it is the same thing and the government of Joe Biden has already put in place several  measures to protect itself from the Chinese giant . Its objective is to promote competitiveness against the Asian country at all costs, either by manufacturing exclusive semi - conductors  for North American industry, or by ruining itself to  manufacture its own batteries .