ThaliaSep 18, 2025
European Commission

“We should invest in small, affordable vehicles.

We will propose to work with industry on a new Small Affordable Cars initiative.

The future of cars - and the cars of the future - must be made in Europe.”

— President von der Leyen will hold tomorrow the third Strategic Dialogue on the Future of the European Automotive Industry.

The dialogue is a continuation of our commitment to safeguarding the future of a sector that is vital to European prosperity.

Sep 11, 2025 at 3:40pmWeb
Show threadww 🩶Sep 11, 2025
@EUCommission i mean, if you accepted china into the eu
Show threadCsepp 🌢Sep 11, 2025
@EUCommission It's true we should get rid of large cars, but you know what's another small and affordable vehicle?
A bike. 
Show threadzaire arcanaSep 11, 2025
@csepp @EUCommission +1 we tolerate personal motor vehicles too much. they shouldn’t be a thing to the extreme extent they are now
Show threadⓋ Gregory Trolliet Ⓐ🔻 🇵🇸Sep 11, 2025

@EUCommission "We shall call those vehicles «bicycles»!"

The entire crowd applauds!

Show threadCarlos SolísSep 11, 2025
Make them electric bikes, maybe make them a quadbike so they can carry loads, and we'd have a winner
Show threadProScience 🇪🇺Sep 11, 2025

@EUCommission

Criminal.

Show thread@PrivacyMattersSep 11, 2025
@EUCommission let’s also focus on alternatives to cars ….
Show threadJurJacSep 11, 2025
@EUCommission Have you considered to not focus on cars, and instead focus on (electrical) bike and rail vehicles instead?
Show threadVeza85UESep 11, 2025
@JurJac @EUCommission The German mind cannot comprehend. The EPP's head would explode into a supernova.
Show threaddexternemrodSep 12, 2025

@Veza85UE

@JurJac @EUCommission

Well as a German I have to answer you ... // cannot compute! Instructions unclear // /i

Show threadMieszko ŚlusarczykSep 11, 2025
@JurJac @EUCommission have you considered it’s not an option for everyone?
Show threadElies🌱🌱Sep 11, 2025
@EUCommission so, why you accept the usa vehicle regulation into europe? This will lead to huge, and insecure cars all over europe
Show thread𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐄 🌼Sep 11, 2025
@EUCommission this sounds great - depending on how you plan to achieve this goal? How about these first steps simply by keeping your promises?
1. hold on to the end of new none-electric cars in 2035
2. hold on to the CO2 prize system
3. hold on to our car regulations which avoids the huge killing monster "cars" from the USA
4. enforce AFIR
So it would already be good if you just keep your promises instead of changing good first steps back to bad disadvantages...
Show threadJakeKbSep 11, 2025
@EUCommission Oh my god, that changes everything!! Finally our economies and planet will be saved. How come we never thought about this solution?
Show threadBjørnar (he/him)Sep 11, 2025
@EUCommission Didn't you _just_ sign up to respect US car standards? I.e. pedestrian-killing pseudo-tanks?
Show threadGaladSep 11, 2025
@btuftin @EUCommission American here. I am ~1.76 meters tall. Most of my neighbors are now driving trucks that are so large that my head is barely visible above the hood when I stand in front of them.
Show threadRihards OlupsSep 11, 2025

@EUCommission Ursula, I promise, this isn't rickrolling, but still very much on topic!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt0V0_1MS0Q

Queen - Bicycle Race (Official Video)

YouTube
Show threadⓋ Gregory Trolliet Ⓐ🔻 🇵🇸Sep 11, 2025
@EUCommission Small affordable cars are the future of the automobile, but the future of mobility is not the car.
🚴
Show threadbluGillSep 11, 2025

@faket

@EUCommission

large trucks (and vans) are the future if the future of mobility isn't automobiles. large trucks are what deliver cargo that can't fit in a backpack and so are not about mobility. (How large is up for debate, it need not be US large)

Show threadⓋ Gregory Trolliet Ⓐ🔻 🇵🇸Sep 11, 2025
@bluGill @EUCommission Yeah, to move my grandmother's old wardrobe every day.
For the rest of our stuff, 99% of the time a cargo bike is enough.
Show threadbluGillSep 11, 2025

@faket

@EUCommission

to move all the food you buy from the farm to the store. To move large machines needed in a factory. To move bars of iron to the factory. To move your new hvac unit (operated by the hvac installers).

sure you don't do that but someone must.

Show threadJocelynSep 11, 2025

@EUCommission

The future of #cars is to NOT be individually owned, and to be a last resort means of transportation.

Reducing drastically the share cars take in our transportation, the space they take when parked in our #cities, the #hospital beds they fill with #roadCasualties, is vital to our #climate, our #wellbeing and our #health.

We should invest in #rail and #bike #infrastructure, and not replace 260 million cars by as many e-cars.

Show threadLovesTha🥧Sep 11, 2025
@cyclotopie @EUCommission A 4~7 person vehicle is pretty much the worst option for *every* use case.
Show threadGif's ArtidoteSep 12, 2025
@cyclotopie @EUCommission 💯
Show threadNic3Sep 11, 2025
@EUCommission trains! Don't forget trains!
Show threadÉtienne ParmentierSep 11, 2025
@EUCommission so let’s not accept any american car ! They are too big and cause way more accident, even at home.
Show threadBad News NobodySep 11, 2025
@EUCommission This is good.
Show threadednl 🇪🇺Sep 11, 2025
@EUCommission A car for the people. A Volkswagen, if you will.
Show threadoptimista 🏴‍☠️🏳️‍🌈Sep 11, 2025
@EUCommission what is this European nationalism? I don't want any of that.
Show threadMacCruiskeenSep 11, 2025
@EUCommission I for one would consider buying an electic Messerschmidt or an Isetta.
Show threadJaapSep 11, 2025
@EUCommission and now for the question how to relate thus to the US trade deal on car regulations.
Show threadYann DroneaudSep 11, 2025
@EUCommission Yes, but public transportation first before individual one: train, tram, bus, bicycle, small car, ...
Show threadFrank Hightower 🐁Sep 11, 2025
@EUCommission will these smaller vehicles require, shall we say, fuel?
Show threadKoen 🇺🇦Sep 12, 2025
@EUCommission why don't you just start taxing big cars, tax petrol and gas and stop subsidizing cars (so many fiscal benefits for big cars, f.ex. in Belgium, just stop it) in general and fossil fuels and kerosine in particular - but what you did was to allow US size trucks to come to the EU unimpeded - any congruence ? In BE cars are subsidized to the wahoo as company-cars and if it's a big polluting US truck it's extra fiscally interesting as you can consider it as a pure work-car -- RIDICULOUS
Show threadpmroman 🇪🇺Sep 12, 2025
@EUCommission So far, they are built in China, even some german brand electric vehicles.
Show threadQuino SchützSep 12, 2025
@EUCommission Dear Ms von der Leyen, I'm afraid to inform you that you're centuries behind. This kind of vehicle has been already invented. It's called bicycle.
Besides: Don't focus solely on cars. Think big! Think mobility in its entirety. Then you will find the appropriate means of transportation for each specific intended use. You don't need an electric kettle with a weight of 2 tons to move a single 75 kilogram item.
.@SheDrivesMobility
Show threadHans-Christoph SteinerSep 12, 2025

@EUCommission Could we please stop subsidizing cars? They are immensely harmful to our environment, our planet, our cities and our children. Cars are:

* number one killer of children
* number one source of major trauma in children
* number one source of pollution in cities (exhaust, brake dust, tire dust, etc)
* Two thirds of our street space are taken up by cars

European industry should focus on things we do better than others, and things that the world needs more urgently, like wind mills.

Show threadAngela ScholderSep 12, 2025

@EUCommission Aha, that's why the door was opened for all American cars. If I understood well, that was the agreement signed with Comrade Krasnov, the orange Cheeto.
But then, all our gas and oil we apparently would buy from America.....

Sounded a ver decisive speech, now see if the Commission has a spine to really deliver!

Show threadbovazSep 12, 2025
@EUCommission A lot of comments are about supporting public transportation, and bicycles. And they are right, partially. But not everyone lives in places where that those are solutions for all transport needs.
For those cases cars work, and in that case, electric (I wish for hydrogen) is the way to go, I think.
Regarding "small and affordable": affordable would be great, but I hope I'll be able to fit in the car. My legs don't fit under the wheel of many cars, and I hit my head on the top, and have to slouch to fit my shoulders in.
Show threadgunstickSep 12, 2025
@EUCommission no, we need cars which are too big for our mediaeval cities and so tall we can run over children without noticing it. </sarcasm>
Show threadFranky_Tegeler :friendica:Sep 12, 2025
@EUCommission And again, nothing about the #transportation transition, about #electromobility. Smaller cars instead of ever-growing SUVs that overlook and run over small children. Fewer cars in cities is the future. The #Commission should promote more #publictransport instead of somehow bailing out the fossil-fuel car industry.