From Paris to London, Carlos Tavares, former CEO of Stellantis, is giving multiple interviews and speeches between October 25 and 28, 2025. Indeed, he advocates for adjusting the EU’s 2035 target on cars: maintaining the climate requirement but allowing combustion engines < 100 g CO₂/km after the deadline. The stated goal: to protect the middle class and industrial employment as Chinese competition strengthens.
The facts: what Carlos Tavares puts on the table
The former CEO of Stellantis, Carlos Tavares, advocates a simple approach. He proposes to maintain a strict CO₂ constraint. However, he wishes to relax the ban on combustion engine sales in 2035 set by the European Union for new "zero-emission" cars. His proposal is to allow, after 2035, the sale of new combustion engines capped under 100 g CO₂/km. This would accelerate the replacement of an old fleet beyond 300 g. The announced goal: to offer an affordable car to the middle class without abandoning the climate target.
Argument: 100% electric technology remains ~50% more expensive to produce than combustion engines, which raises prices for already struggling households. The offer exists, he says, but the price discourages. Automotive technological neutrality means keeping multiple paths like electric, hybrids, and synthetic fuels. This is possible provided that an identifiable emissions threshold is respected and progress is made on the autonomy of electric cars.
A meticulously planned media tour (October 25–28, 2025)
In a few days, October 25–28, 2025, Carlos Tavares occupied French and international airwaves and columns. Between Parisian studios and Anglo-Saxon interviews, he talks about his departure, clarifies his project, and makes bold statements: "electric is too expensive," "the dogma opens a boulevard to the Chinese." In the narrative, he repeats that electric car prices remain high. Along the way, he promotes his autobiographical account, A Pilot at the Heart of the Storm (Plon), written as a leader’s logbook, caught between discipline and speed.
December 1, 2024: a departure in full headwind
December 1, 2024: the shock wave hits. The board of Stellantis accepts the resignation of the leader, with immediate effect. In the background: a strategic disagreement on the pace of electrification, the state of the markets, and the group’s ability to absorb the industrial effort. During his fall 2025 interviews, the person concerned mentions a "loss of confidence". Furthermore, he claims he was criticized for "going too fast" towards the "clean car." However, he maintains that, at the time of leaving, Stellantis was "ready" for European requirements.
The European horizon: zero-emission target 2035 and clauses
The legal framework is clear: the EU aims for a 100% reduction in tailpipe emissions of new cars by 2035. This is part of the Fit for 55 package and the Regulation (EU) 2019/631. Milestones exist (2025, 2030), as well as a review clause. On the margins, a specific mechanism on e-fuels has opened since 2023 a possible regulatory path. In this landscape, the Tavares window would consist of restoring a small place for constrained combustion engines (< 100 g CO₂/km), without unraveling the goal.
A thesis: repair through the middle
The core of his reasoning is based on three points:
- Purchasing power: the electric car is more expensive to produce (+40% to +50% depending on the case), and therefore more expensive to buy. This may slow down the renewal of the fleet, which delays climate gains.
- Targeted replacement: allowing low-emission combustion engines < 100 g would push households to move away from old diesel/gasoline > 300 g, with immediate benefit for emissions.
- Automotive technological neutrality: Europe sets the goal, but does not impose the path. Moreover, the electric tool remains central, but not exclusive if a measurable threshold is respected.
Chinese manufacturers in Europe: threat, lifeline… or both
BYD, Geely, Leapmotor… The former leader sees in the Chinese manufacturers the winners of a European ecosystem he considers too dogmatic. According to him, these players "will save" factories in Europe and could reach ~10% market share. This could happen shortly, by acquiring or filling underutilized sites. The message oscillates between alert and provocation: the arrival of the Chinese would be a lifeline for employment. However, it would represent an industrial defeat if the EU locks itself into a technological monopoly.
The narrative thread: Estoril, hushed studios, and boardrooms
The story opens in Estoril. A call one December afternoon: "I no longer have confidence". The scene, recounted by Carlos Tavares, condenses speed and control, two obsessions of a pilot: anticipate, cut the trajectory, avoid oversteering. Follows a discreet odyssey: radio studios in Paris, TV sets, boardrooms where billions, grams, and jobs are counted. In the Douro Valley, the vines draw ideal lines, on accounts, the lines diverge. The man accelerates electric while fighting the dogma, he defends the industry while shaking up his own teams. Assumed paradox, and maintained mystery.
Apparent contradictions, claimed coherence
Carlos Tavares loves paradoxes: he wants to accelerate the electrification of ranges while warning about its social cost. Moreover, he praises industrial efficiency while preaching regulatory caution. Furthermore, he opens the door to Chinese investments while hammering European sovereignty. Coherence, he argues: "neutrality", "affordability", "speed". The mechanics would be the same as in racing: aim for the optimal, not the absolute.
What Brussels and the proponents of the 2035 target say
On the Commission side, the 2035 target responds to two imperatives: climate and competitiveness. Visibility for investment, scale effects on batteries, charging networks, employment in new sectors. Pro-electric NGOs and part of the sector emphasize that lowering the constraint would delay cost reductions and maintain dependence on fossil imports. They remind that the review clause exists and technical margins are already planned. Moreover, these margins include e-fuels, utilities, and small series niches. The debate is less about the destination than about the trajectory and the pace.
Who pays, who wins: the social question at the center
The middle class bears the brunt of the transition cost if purchase prices remain high. Hence the battle around small electric cars < €25,000 and rentals with capped rents. Furthermore, this battle also concerns targeted incentives and European origin rules. Carlos Tavares pushes the idea of a transitional mix capable of quickly reducing real emissions by first replacing the worst emitters. Proponents of an all-electric target respond that the learning curve and the decline in batteries will make EVs quickly competitive, especially if one includes the TCO of EVs (total cost of ownership), home charging cost, usage costs, and maintenance.
A red line: not yielding on measurement
Beyond slogans, a consensus emerges: measure precisely. Verifiable thresholds, traceability of so-called neutral fuels, control of emissions in use. The only way to avoid greenwashing would be to link any derogation (for example < 100 g) to strict, controllable, and sanctionable protocols. This is where the credibility of the compromise will be played out.
Portrait of a "pilot": work, discipline, speed
At 66 years old, Carlos Tavares claims an ethic: work, discipline, speed of execution. His book A Pilot at the Heart of the Storm describes endurance rituals. Moreover, it addresses an obsession with efficiency and convictions forged from Renault to PSA, up to Stellantis. The man has turned around, merged, compressed. He also knows how to shock with his short phrases. From this character arises the mystery: pragmatism or provocation? Long-term vision or defensive adjustment?
What we will follow now
- The European review of the 2035 architecture and its concrete modalities (e-fuels, hybrids, utilities, small series).
- The price level of small EVs and the rise of an offer < €25,000.
- The establishment of Chinese players in Europe (site acquisitions, joint ventures, sourcing), and the commercial safeguards.
- The industrial choices of European groups: multi-energy platforms or full BEV.
A European compromise
The Tavares mystery may just be a method: forcing the debate on the how without upsetting the why. 2035 remains the North Star. But relaxing the itinerary via a measured threshold could accelerate the real renewal of the fleet and relieve the middle class. It remains to prove that this fine-tuning will not open a breach in the climate ambition, nor an expressway to bypass strategies. In Brussels as in the factories, it is now time for numbers and timed trials.