Market News

By Edith Hancock

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the bloc's executive arm will lend support to automakers to speed up the deployment of automated cars in a bid to compete with overseas rivals.

The move is part of a broader push to support the auto sector in the European Union as it faces growing competition from Chinese manufacturers while some companies complain of also being bogged down by the EU's rules on CO2 emissions.

Von der Leyen told a Tuesday press conference that a new industry alliance will be set up to help European car manufacturers pool resources, enabling them to develop shared software chips and autonomous driving technology. At the same time, she said the commission would refine testing and deployment rules and help to launch lare-scale pilots for autonomous driving.

"We need a big push in software and hardware for autonomous driving," she said. "We know that global competition on this topic is fierce, so we have to act big and we have to be big," she said, adding that scale matters "more than ever before" in the smart car space.

The commission chief added that she will propose a tweak to the bloc's rules on carbon emissions standards later this month that would give some companies more time to comply with them without changing the EU's existing missions targets. "They have to fulfill the targets but it means more breathing space for industry," she said. That amendment would still need to be negotiated with diplomats and EU lawmakers.

Write to Edith Hancock at [email protected]