Why Cañete’s claims about ‘car factory closures’ are misleading

It is therefore surprising that rather than seeking to aggressively drive down emissions from Europe’s cars and vans, Climate Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete and his department are making claims that repeatedly mislead the co-decision makers in the Parliament and Council about the impact of its proposals for post-2020 CO₂ targets for new cars and vans. The defensive moves of the Commissioner and his department have been to discredit electric cars and warn of job losses. But his claims are not supported by the evidence including the analysis of the Commission’s own impact assessment – this paper matches the claims to the evidence.