CLEPA, along with ACEA and Tyres Europe, has urged EU institutions to ensure that the proposed extension of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) supports the entire automotive value chain, including suppliers, manufacturers, and tyre producers.
In a joint letter preceding the interinstitutional negotiations, they voiced support for CBAM’s goal of preventing carbon leakage but cautioned that the current approach could impose significant compliance burdens and costs on downstream industries. They emphasized extending CBAM only where substantial carbon-leakage risks exist and where effective methodology, data availability, and verification capabilities are established for complex products. Furthermore, they advocate for a targeted expansion that focuses on the highest carbon leakage risks, rather than involving the extensive range of CN codes currently proposed.
The letter also requests reduced compliance burdens, calling for more proportionate default values that represent actual production routes—especially concerning aluminium and post-consumer scrap—to avoid discouraging recycling. They recommend maintaining the current 50-tonne threshold for aluminium products rather than lowering it to 5 tonnes and caution against imposing double carbon-cost burdens on an already strained industry facing elevated carbon-related expenses for European steel and aluminium. The signatories stress that CBAM must protect the entire industry from carbon leakage rather than merely shifting the risk downstream and urge EU institutions to adopt a balanced approach that sustains investment, jobs, and manufacturing in Europe.
