Stellantis and Renault Push UK Into EU Car Protection Rules

By Olivia Hart

Stellantis and Renault want the UK treated as if it were one of the EU's 27 member states under the proposed "Made in Europe" legislation, a move that would fold Britain into Brussels' planned regime for protecting European car manufacturing. The two companies did not stop at market access. They also urged the British government to consider limiting imports of Chinese cars.

The call came from two of the industry's most senior European executives: Emanuele Cappellano, who leads Stellantis's European brands including Fiat, Citroën, Opel and Vauxhall, and François Provost, chief executive of France's Renault. Their position puts the weight of two continental manufacturing groups behind a UK industry that has spent months pressing for inclusion in the EU's protective framework.

In plain words: two of Europe's largest carmakers are asking regulators to redraw a post-Brexit boundary in industrial policy.

What does the proposal actually involve?

The "Made in Europe" legislation is the EU's proposed mechanism to shield domestic industry, and the executives' argument is straightforward. The UK should be counted as part of the bloc's 27-member single market for the purposes of these rules — not for everything, but for the specific purpose of deciding which cars qualify for protection.

That is a narrower ask than full single-market membership. It targets one regime. Whether Brussels would accept such a carve-out, or whether it would survive scrutiny from member states with their own auto interests, neither executive addressed.

The second pillar is harder-edged. Both companies pressed the UK government to consider limits on imports of Chinese cars. Britain, outside the EU's customs framework, sets its own trade policy toward China — and has so far shown no sign in this source material of matching any European restrictions.

The takeaway: the executives want harmonized protection on both sides of the Channel, but only one side has the legislation on the table.

Why would Stellantis and Renault want this?

Stellantis's European portfolio spans Fiat, Citroën, Opel and Vauxhall — brands with deep manufacturing and retail footprints in both markets. Vauxhall in particular carries legacy UK production. For a group operating across the Channel, divergent protection regimes would split supply chains, compliance rules and competitive conditions.

Renault, through Provost, shares the calculus. A European protection regime that stops at the French border with the UK leaves an open flank: Chinese imports could enter through Britain and compete against shielded continental producers.

What neither company specified, at least in the material available, is what form the import limits should take — tariffs, quotas or screening mechanisms. The urging is directional, not detailed.

In plain words: the carmakers fear a two-speed Europe where Britain becomes the unprotected doorway.

What is left unsaid?

No figures on Chinese import volumes, no timeline for the legislation, and no UK government response appear in the executives' appeal as reported. The push arrives amid wider UK-EU reset negotiations, and linking British market access to curbs on Chinese cars effectively hands London a trade-off it has not publicly weighed: closer industrial alignment with Brussels in exchange for a harder line on Beijing.

Whether UK ministers see that bargain as attractive is, for now, an open question — and one the two chief executives left hanging.

The request signals that Europe's largest carmakers now view UK industrial policy as inseparable from their own continental strategy; the next move belongs to Westminster and Brussels.