Porsche Fires Back at Italy’s EU Policy Exemption Plans

No exceptions

If you’ve been keeping up with automotive news in the past few years or so, you’ll notice that everything coming out of manufacturers these days revolves around the transition to electric. I started Drift Merch’s Newsroom to keep both myself and others informed on important events in the scene, but was surprised to see how quickly the transition was happening. Although some of the push is driven by automakers wanting to explore the benefits of using electric technology, much of the urgency is brought upon by policymakers. 

Recently, we talked about Italy’s pushback against the European Union’s plans to ban all internal combustion cars by 2035. Basic physics in the form of Newton’s third law dictates that for every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction – and the automotive industry isn’t immune to these laws. Today we learn that Porsche’s CEO, Oliver Blume, told Bloomberg that no manufacturer should be exempt from the EU’s emissions policies. 

Arguing for both performance and the environment, Blume asserts that “electric in the next decade will be unbeatable.” He continues, “De-carbonization is a global question and everybody has to contribute.” 

Porsche is certainly at the cutting edge when it comes to producing electric vehicles (and fast ones at that). The Porsche Taycan is already on public roads, and their recently announced all-electric Mission R concept race car gives us a taste of what’s to come both on and off the race track. The competition between the likes of Porsche, Tesla, and even newcomers like Lucid’s Air is healthy not just for the industry, but the environment as well. If certain manufacturers are given special treatment with emissions requirements, the foundations of plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions may crumble as more manufacturers seek the same. 

All of this begs the question, one that we explored when speed is no longer a factor in sports cars: what will manufacturers like Ferrari and Lamborghini have to offer when all cars are blisteringly fast? A major part of the appeal of these cars is not only their exclusivity and bold explorative designs, but that they oozed passion and character with their dramatic engines and engaging gearboxes.

Lamborghini, being under the same umbrella as Porsche and Audi in Volkswagen Group, may potentially have the opportunity to borrow their electric technology; but Ferrari has no such options. Although performance will certainly still play an important role, I believe design and an emphasis on driver involvement and handling, similar to the approach Lotus may take with their future electric cars, will differentiate exotics from EV commuters in the future.