Europe

Europe has a shitty plan (sorry) to end the fertilizer crisis: manure

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He blockade of the Strait of Hormuz After the attacks by the US and Israel on Iran, it has had consequences that we have noticed from day one, such as the rise in fuel prices. There are others that threaten on the horizon and that are even more fearsome: according to United Nations dataApproximately a third of the world’s fertilizer trade and 20% of global LNG, an essential ingredient for manufacturing nitrogen fertilizers, pass through there. And fertilizer is providential so that food from the garden and farm reaches our table. Europe, which manufactures most of its fertilizers by burning imported natural gas, found itself overnight with skyrocketing prices and a very dark horizon. With prices 70% higher than in 2024the farmers don’t get the bills. For consumers, it seems clear that filling the shopping basket is going to be more expensive. So the European Commission has a contingency plan: the Fertilizer Action Plan. A literal shitty alternative. The central proposal from Brussels is to expand the recycling of slurry and agricultural waste to convert them into fertilizer following the program RENURE. The idea is not new: already in 2024 the Commission proposed to modify the Nitrates Directive to allow certain fertilizer materials derived from livestock manure to function as an alternative to chemical fertilizers under certain conditions. In fact, it is neither new nor sufficient. As MEP Herbert Dorfmann bluntly summarized: “manure can contribute, but it can never replace fertilizers based on urea and nitrogen.” From a technical point of view, this is an incontestable reality: synthetic fertilizers produced through the process of Haber-Bosch They have much higher available nitrogen densities than digestate or processed slurry. Why it is important. Because the Nitrogen fertilizers are the basis of modern industrial agriculture. Without them, having the supply and quantity of products that we have and at that price would be simply impossible. According to Mosaic Crop Nutrition data For agricultural production in the US, average corn yields would fall by 40% without nitrogen fertilizers. For wheat, long-term studies point to similar drops of 40%. In short, it is the pillar on which the ability to feed the planet’s population is supported. The fertilizer crisis once again puts Europe’s strategic dependence on the table, in this case on its agriculture, on fossil fuels (from third parties) and everything that its use entails: water, soil and air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and public health risks. Every time there are geopolitical tensions in a gas-producing region, Europe trembles faced with the possibility of being cold or go hungry. Context. We mentioned being cold because not too long ago Europe looked into the abyss: the start of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine in 2022 brought with it an increase in the price of gas and fertilizers, which caused farmers on the old continent to reduce the use of fertilizer (and therefore, lower their yields). At that time the EU put a patch on it and now, four years later, seen in the same scenario and with the same structural problems. The current plan mentions necessary solutions such as improving nutrient management or promoting organic farming (environmental MEP Thomas Waitz also has said loud and clear that Europe is addicted to fertilizers derived from fossil fuels), but there are no concrete actions or obligations. We insist: RENURE is not something new, when the Commission proposed it a couple of years ago it already had the support of Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Romania, among others. Of course, its application was at a standstill due to regulatory issues. How do they want to do it?. The mechanism consists of modifying the EU Nitrates Directive to allow more digestate to be applied to agricultural fields, putting it on a par with mineral fertilizers. The digestate is what remains after fermenting the slurry in biogas plants: it contains nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, although in concentrations and forms of assimilation significantly lower than those of the synthetic fertilizer. In parallel, the plan mentions measures such as improving integrated nutrient management and promoting a transition towards organic agriculture, although without specific commitments or binding calendars. Yes, but. The big underlying problem is that Europe does not lack nitrogen, quite the opposite. In fact, the EU already has more nitrogen than their soils can safely absorb, which promotes the eutrophication and deterioration of rivers and lakes, in addition to ammonia emissions and contamination of drinking water. Adding more slurry to soils that are already saturated is neither a solution to shortages (and prices) nor is it good for the environment. A recent UNECE report estimates that Europe wastes between €20 billion and €60 billion in nitrogen resources each year, while the environmental and health costs of excess nitrogen pollution reach, according to the European Commission itselfbetween 70,000 and 320,000 million euros annually. The real solution is to get rid of fossil gas in the long term (and have plans similar to those with oil, with long contracts, diversification and strategic reserves) and bet on alternative technologies such as green ammonia. In this scenario, slurry can play a role in a circular economy, but it is certainly not an emergency patch. In Xataka | We are wasting a valuable resource: urine is helping solve the fertilizer crisis In Xataka | The Iran war has disrupted the global fertilizer trade. And that’s bad news for the shopping cart. Cover | Daniel Quiceno M and Markus Spiske

The great deindustrialization of Europe, on a map that divides the continent into two

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Europe is a continent and many different realities and the economy is no exception. we see it in the industrial fabric, in GDP, in salaries and on the map that you see above these lines: the weight of the industry in employment, or what is the same, what population that works does so in a factory. Although we are going to see it in a big way and with the legend, at first glance something stands out: while there are states that have industry as their main source of employment, in others what rules are services. The weight of the industry in employment in Europe. More specifically, the map represents the percentage that factory employment represents in total employment in each European region in a range that goes from 3% (the lightest areas) to 34% (the dark red areas). The map in question is the work of the cartographer of Milos Popovic and for its preparation it takes the data corresponding to 2023 from Eurostatthe official statistical office of the EU, which publishes these series systematically for member states, allowing them to be compared. Why it is important. Because beyond offering direct employment, the industry is the sector that contributes the most to productivity growth throughout the economy, according to data from Eurostat and the analysis of the European Center for Austrian Economics Foundation. When there is no industry (or there is it in small doses), the services that replace it tend to concentrate on activities with lower productivity and lower wages. On the other hand, losing industry implies dependence on third parties: we saw it in the pandemic when buying masks and we continually suffer it in strategic products such as semiconductors. And it also takes its toll on exports and deteriorates R&D capacity. What percentage of total employment does the industry occupy? Eurostat via Milos Popovic The two Europes: that of industry and that of services. Broadly speaking, Europe is divided into two blocks: the center, the east and some exceptions in the north of the Iberian Peninsula concentrate between 24 and 35% of its employment in manufacturing. On the other side of the coin, Ireland, the Nordic countries, Greece or southern Spain are below 13%. This division is due to several moments but the reasons are identical. Central Europe is the factory of the old continent and much of the blame lies with the EU enlargement in 2004a moment in which European and global multinationals relocated their production to those economies, taking advantage of low labor costs, the existence of labor and, obviously, this new scenario of access to the common market. Germany, the exception and the industrial anchor of Europe. Germany is simply an anomaly in Europe. While France, the United Kingdom and the Nordic countries have been reducing their industrial weight for decades, Germany has been able to maintain robust manufacturing: it represents around 19.7% of the country’s gross added value compared to the European average of 15.6% thanks to an industrial fabric made up of medium-sized companies specialized in machinery, automotive, chemicals and capital goods. But it is not being easy at all: energy is expensive, competition (especially Chinese) is fierce in industries such as the automobile industry and the drop in demand is forcing the Central European country to undergo a profound restructuring. And layoffs: without going any further, ThyssenKrupp Steel advertisement in 2024 a workforce cut from 27,000 to 16,000 workers, an example that summarizes what is happening throughout Teutonic heavy industry. The deindustrialization of the West. Industrial weight loss in Western Europe is not new and does not stop: according to the GMK Center with data from the World Bankthe EU’s share of global industrial added value fell from 20.8% in 2000 to 16.3% in 2023 and between 2018 and 2024 alone, 700,000 jobs were lost in the old continent in the industry. France is a magnificent example because it is the most illustrative case: the industry barely represents 10.6% of its gross added value, almost half that of Germany. Spain stands at 11.7% although it has abysmal differences between the more industrial north (La Rioja and Navarra) and the tourist south. In Xataka | There is one fact that summarizes Europe better than any speech: the minimum wage gap between the east and west of the continent. In Xataka | The best paid jobs in Spain in 2026: from 56,000 euros for a doctor to 250,000 for directing private banking Cover | MilosGis

Europe is preparing four measures to become independent from United States technology. The problem is that he doesn’t know how

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The European Union has been ruminating for some time that depending on third parties to manage its data, its chips and its digital infrastructure is a risk that it can no longer afford, so next Wednesday, June 3, it will put on the table a package of measures to achieve its technological sovereignty (or at least, to depend less on countries like the United States or China) whose draft they have already had access to. Financial Times either Political. The sovereignty package is so ambitious that it aims to mark a before and after at the level of the RGPD and it is not something general and intangible: there are four specific measures so that vulnerabilities such as that of Nexperia don’t happen again. But the dependence on the United States is just as worrying, as the slam of the Netherlands on the purchase of Solvinity. Two concrete examples from two different countries for the same problem: European critical infrastructure is in the hands of others. The EU package of measures. Next Wednesday, technology commissioner Henna Virkkunen will present the review of two laws known as the Chips Act and the Cloud and AI Development Actin addition to an open source software strategy and a roadmap for the digitalization of the energy sector. More specifically: The cloud, tested. Audits and stress tests to discover vulnerabilities and thus anticipate a possible US blackout. Chips Act 2. The Commission imposes the power to, in an emergency, cancel semiconductor supply contracts in the event of a shortage, fine companies that hide information about their supply chain and act as a central buyer for the 27 member states, as it did with vaccines during COVID. Open source as an alternative way. The EU wants to promote European free software companies, will encourage collaboration between states and create an instrument to maintain indigenous solutions against US proprietary software. A lot of financing: 200 billion euros are needed to expand data center capacity until 2036 and another 20 billion to execute digitalization and AI plans in the energy sector. Where from? Fundamentally, attracting private investment. Why is it important. Because Europe does not manage its own data or control the core of its critical industry and this has clear and direct consequences. The old continent has already seen the wolf’s ears. A good example is the cloud: three American companies occupy 70% of the European market, according to Sinergy datacompared to a pyrrhic 15% made in Europe. These are hospitals, public administration, defense of all of Europe operating on servers where Washington rules. In terms of chips, it has already experienced it with Nexperia: the Dutch government took control of the company to prevent China from destroying it and Beijing responded by cutting off the supply of chips, which resulted in a shortage of processors and even stops in an industry as essential for the old continent as the automobile. Context. This package of measures comes with clear bases: the recommendations of the Mario Draghi’s competitiveness report of 2024 and the Competitiveness Compass of the EU and in reality it is not more bureaucracy, but a way of simplifying everything to see the objective more clearly. In fact, a year ago the European Parliament defined what he understood as technological sovereignty: “the ability to build capacity, resilience and security by reducing strategic dependencies, avoiding dependence on foreign actors and single suppliers, and safeguarding critical technologies and infrastructure.” Regarding the chip manufacturing industry, a paradigm shift is observed: we have gone from the practical “just in time” to streamline inventories seeking efficiency and low cost to manufacturing “just in case”, something that is already contemplated by both the European chip law and its American counterpart. Europe’s problem is that it arrives late and with a tiny manufacturing muscle. Yes, but. The European record invites us to take this ambitious plan with caution. The different projects to manufacture chips in the old continent have progressed unevenly, the funds from the original law were dispersed among different state projects without a common industrial strategy (for example, Germany negotiated with Intel and France with STMicroelectronics) and the reality today is that chip manufacturing conditions in Europe continue to be worse than in China, South Korea or the United States. That Europe legislates and each state goes to war on its own also applies to the cloud: the government of each state has the power to decide what to do after the relevant audits. The new package of measures starts from the same point and runs the same risks of fragmentation. On the other hand, there is the economic issue: public financing may be dispersed, but private financing for data centers is not yet assured. And finally there is a big underlying problem: Europe has laws, but it lacks a powerful and complete industrial ecosystem to achieve technological sovereignty. In Xataka | Europe has proposed to become technologically independent from the US: And it has started with the most difficult thing: chips In Xataka | Europe is moving from words to action in its “independence” from Microsoft and Google. First step: critical data Cover | Intel and Carl Gruner

It has been operating for 30 years and is the geothermal envy of Europe

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It is eleven meters under the asphalt. It doesn’t make noise, it doesn’t emit smoke and it doesn’t appear on the news. But while Zaragoza residents debate the electricity bill, under their feet there is a layer of underground water that remains at a stable 18 °C all year round – in the heat of the August heat wave or in the January frost – and that has been silently heating and cooling dozens of buildings in the city for almost three decades. The existence of this “natural radiator” hidden under the streets of Zaragoza has returned to the news this week with a double reason: the consolidation of the city as a European benchmark in urban geothermal exploitation, and the presentation of a pioneering method – developed and tested there – to intelligently manage this resource before success destroys it. In short. The team of the Advanced Hydrogeological and Geothermal Systems Group (SHGA) of the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain (IGME-CSIC) has presented the results of THERMAL, a new method of managing the urban aquifer that they have successfully tested in Zaragoza. The data is concrete: by better coordinating existing heat pumps – without drilling a single new well – more than 7,500 euros per year can be saved per installation and the emission of almost 15 tons of CO₂ can be avoided. As Cristina de Santiago Buey, geologist and researcher at IGME-CSIC, details, the Aragonese capital is already a reference. “What makes Zaragoza a benchmark is not only the magnitude of the use, but the way in which it has been managed collectively through a model based on scientific knowledge and institutional coordination,” explains the scientist. “This total vision guarantees that geothermal exploitation does not compromise either the sustainability of the aquifer or public health, and turns the municipality into a pioneering example of urban subsoil governance.” Why Zaragoza? The “mattress” of the Ebro. It is no coincidence that this happens here. Beneath the city lies what geologists call the aquifer “Ebro Alluvial: Zaragoza“: a mass of underground water between 20 and 30 meters thick, in direct connection with the riverbed, and with the water table about 11 meters deep. In simple terms, it is a cushion of water linked to the Ebro that acts as a natural thermostat. The geothermal key to that mattress is its temperature. While the outside air oscillates between 35 °C in the Aragonese summer and 2 °C on a Cerro day, the groundwater remains stable at around 18 °C throughout the year. That consistency is exactly what a geothermal heat pump needs to work at maximum efficiency. A giant refrigerator under the asphalt. To understand its mechanism, it is worth remembering how the home refrigerator works: it does not generate cold, it simply moves heat from the inside to the outside. The geothermal heat pump does the same, but on an urban scale and using the subsoil as a source or sink of energy. In winter, the system extracts water from the aquifer at 18 °C, “steals” part of that heat through an exchanger, and amplifies it to heat the building. Then, the water – now somewhat colder – is reinjected. In summer, the process is reversed: heat is extracted from the building and released to groundwater, which at 18°C ​​is much colder than the outside air. The advantage over aerothermal energy is substantial. Cristina de Santiago Buey illustrates it very clearly: if we want to keep a house at 22 °C and the outside air is at 5 °C in winter, an aerothermal pump has to overcome a large thermal jump of 17 degrees. “If instead of air we use the ground, which remains stable around 18 °C, the jump is much smaller and the pump works much more easily and efficiently,” details the expert. Less effort translates directly into less electricity consumed and a much lower bill. Three decades and sixty installations. The geothermal use of the Zaragoza aquifer was growing progressively for almost thirty years. The result: about 60 large installations, mostly in public buildings, with an installed power of about 110 thermal megawatts only for cooling – the approximate equivalent of the energy needed to air-condition more than 15,000 homes. Hospitals, university campuses, shopping centers and apartment blocks benefit from it. Highlights include the City Council’s Zero Emissions Building, which consumes 52% less energy than a conventional building, or the Saica paper mill, with a field of 12 holes integrated into its foundations. The managers of these properties agree: the peace of mind of not depending on the fluctuations of the electricity market to cool or heat huge surfaces compensates for any initial installation effort. Although there is a B side. With so many wells extracting and reinjecting water, facilities can interfere with each other. If the aquifer becomes excessively hot in the long term by returning too much hot water, it is no longer useful. The current challenge is not the lack of resources, but rather coordinating their use among dozens of actors. This is where the THERMAL method comes in. The system adjusts flow rates and temperatures so that no installation interferes with the others. The next step is already underway: incorporating artificial intelligence and machine learning to anticipate energy demand and climate changes in the subsoil, with the aim of exporting this model to other European cities. From Zaragoza to Mieres: an exportable model. To measure the milestone of Zaragoza, it is advisable to look at international references. Paris, thanks to the large Dogger aquifer, has an immense underground air conditioning network; and near Helsinki, in Vantaa, the world’s largest seasonal thermal storage system is being built, designed to store summer heat and release it in winter. In Spain, the other great example is Mieres (Asturias), where the Pozo Barredo – an abandoned and flooded coal mine – was converted into the largest geothermal network in the country. Today it heats a hospital, the university and hundreds of homes in a perfect example … Read more

While Europe looks at Ukraine, the US has sounded the alarms for Spain on a closer front: losing two autonomous cities

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In July 2002, a handful of Moroccan soldiers landed on the islet of Perejil and raised a Moroccan flag there. The Spanish response came days later with a military operation so rapid and measured that it ended up becoming one of the diplomatic-military episodes strangest of the recent Mediterranean. What worries Spain. While Europe concentrates much of its military attention in Ukraine and the eastern flank of NATO, a much closer concern is growing in Spain: the south of the Strait. The problem is not just Morocco or the military balance in the Maghreb, but the change in the United States’ attitude toward the region. The appearance in Washington of official documents that describe Ceuta and Melilla like cities “under Spanish administration” in Moroccan territory has generated unprecedented alarm because it breaks a historical diplomatic taboo. For decades, the sovereignty of both cities was considered out of the question for Western allies. Now some American political sectors are beginning to treat her as an open dispute susceptible to future negotiation. US pressure. Spanish concern does not arise solely from a parliamentary report, but from the political context that surrounds it. Republican congressman Mario Diaz-Balartclose to Marco Rubio’s entourage and aligned with positions very favorable to Rabat, has not only publicly defended that Ceuta and Melilla are “in Moroccan territory”, but that the own report encourages the State Department to promote diplomatic talks about their status. All this coincides with the deterioration of the relationship between Donald Trump and the Spanish Government for military spendingNATO and the disagreements over Iran. In certain strategic Spanish sectors, the feeling is beginning to spread that Washington increasingly considers most useful to Morocco as a regional and less essential partner to Spain within its Mediterranean architecture. Morocco and the new balance. The most profound change may be occurring on the other side of the Strait. Morocco has been accelerating for years its military modernization through agreements with the United States, Israel, Türkiye and France, while also promoting its own arms industry. Since 2021, industrial projects linked to drones, weapons and advanced military production have multiplied. At the same time, Rabat has consolidated his diplomatic position in Washington after the American recognition of Western Sahara. For many Spanish analysts, the problem is no longer just migratory pressure or specific border crises, but the emergence of a regional power much more militarily connected to the West and increasingly secure in its strategic position. Spain is left out. The other big concern is that Spain seems have been left out of the new network of military alliances in the Maghreb. Italy has become the main strategic partner of Algeria in the Mediterranean, expanding defense agreements, industrial cooperation and military coordination with one of the most powerful armies in Africa. Morocco, meanwhile, close ties with Washington, Paris and Tel Aviv. Spain has managed to rebuild diplomatic relations with both neighbors, but it hardly has any relevant agreements on defense matters. This vacuum is beginning to be perceived as a serious problem in certain strategic circles, especially when linked reports to the Ministry of Defense they already admit that “South of the Strait of Gibraltar, military pressure is a reality.” Ceuta and Melilla as vulnerable points. That is why the reports of the Spanish Institute for Strategic Studies raise with increasing clarity the need to a specific plan defense for Ceuta and Melilla. The focus goes far beyond the military and includes logistics, cybersecurity, maritime surveillance, institutional resilience and protection of critical infrastructure. Fear does not necessarily point to an open conventional conflict, but rather to hybrid scenarios constant pressure: migration crises, diplomatic tensions, partial blockades or political attrition campaigns. Autonomous cities thus appear as especially sensitive enclaves due to their logistical dependence and geographical isolation. A brutal return: geography. If you like, all this reflects something broader: the return of geography as a central factor of European politics. For years, Spain observed the Maghreb mainly from a migratory and commercial perspective, while the greatest threats seemed to be far from the western Mediterranean. But the war in Ukraine has accelerated regional rearmament and has reorganized alliances throughout the area. And in the midst of this transformation, Spain begins to discover that one of its potentially most delicate fronts is not in the Baltic or in Eastern Europe, but just in the other side of the strait. Image | US Army In Xataka | The US threatened to take the Rota base to Morocco. Spain has buried it with an unbeatable offer: more territory In Xataka | ANDhe tunnel between Spain and Morocco seemed like a chimera. Now a tunnel boring machine manufacturer says it is viable

There is a city that has scanned the faces of more than 3 million people on the street and it is not in China, but in Europe

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A few days ago a man was walking down the street when, without realizing it, a camera scanned his face. As he continued walking, a sophisticated system compared his face to a police database, sent the alert, and within minutes he was arrested. It happened in London. The city of cameras. London is one of the most surveilled cities in the world; according to some sourcesin its streets there are more than 600,000 cameras controlling everything that happens. For some years now, in addition, they have a real-time facial recognition system to identify dangerous criminals, and it seems that the system is being as effective as it is controversial. In numbers. London’s Metropolitan Police say that since the beginning of 2024 they have made 2,500 arrests, of which 2,100 are related to violent and sexual crimes against women and girls. The system scanned more than 3 million faces in one year and only generated ten false positives. During a pilot in the Croydon district at least 470,000 passers-by were scanned with only one false positive. According to the police, the result of this test was a 10.5% crime reduction. How it works. The facial recognition cameras they have installed are capable of scanning up to 5,000 faces per hour. What they do is send the data to a police operations room where an AI system, signed by the Japanese company NEC, is dedicated to compare them with the police databasewhere there are more than 17,000 registered suspects. When there is a match, an alert is issued to officers in the area so they can make the arrest. Opposition. Organizations like Big Brother Watch has carried out campaigns against this systemarguing that it risks normalizing mass surveillance in public spaces and calling the technology ‘Orwellian’. Furthermore, they strongly question its true operational profitability since, while the police boast of making an arrest every 35 minutes, they warn that these statistics hide the enormous number of hours of the agents and the immense logistical resources that the system requires on the streets, diverting efforts from traditional and more proportionate police work. The debate has intensified after the unprecedented use of the system in a political protest in London. Big Brother Watch took the case to the High Court, but it ruled in favor of the legality of the technology, paving the way for its expansion. In favor. Despite opposition from some organizations, according to Police Director Lindsey Chiswick, the technology is “revolutionary” and completely secure, stressing that the biometric data of those who do not match the list of suspects are immediately destroyed. There are also fears that the algorithm discriminates based on race, but the police hide behind the fact that the tests carried out concluded that the system is accurate and does not present ethnic or gender biases. According to Chiswick, citizen support is around 80% in surveys. Image | Levi Meir ClancyUnsplash In Xataka | Concern over mass video surveillance has created a new product: anti-facial recognition glasses

What until recently were small incursions of spring heat have turned Europe into hell

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London at 35 degrees in the month of May. We are talking about a record that would be exceptional in the middle of summer. France (“a country where much of its territory is low, soft terrain of little relief”) dangerously close to 40 and discovering how all those cities in the valleys They become “pans like Seville or Córdoba”. Central Europe, the Alps, the former Yugoslavia seeing how the thermometers have gone completely crazy. “Literally hundreds of May records have already been beaten“and the worst thing is that no symptoms are seen weakening on the horizon. The relevant question today may be why. What is happening? “It will never cease to surprise me to see a number (…) so extreme for the time and covering such a large record area,” said González Alemán a few hours ago. And no wonder: each of the little pink dots in the image below are historical heat records for May. This week, Europe has become hell and, despite years of warnings, no one really expected it. How is it possible? The explanation is simple. A powerful subtropical anticyclone has spread over Western Europe and is generating what It is often referred to as a “heat dome”. That is, a situation in which the air on the surface is not renewed, does not move and, as a consequence, warms up little by little. The following two maps show perfectly what this “heat dome” is and where it is affecting most intensely. What do they mean? The first image shows the size and extent of the anticyclone. Right now, much of Europe is cloudless. The second shows the intensity of the phenomenon. As Jeff Berardelli explainsany red dot represents a new record for May (and we are taking the record since 1950 as a reference). This has many names… “atmospheric blocks”, quasi-resonant amplification of planetary waves either persistence of “double jet” configurations about Eurasia. But the result is the same: the problem has stopped being the heat and is starting to be that today’s climatic extremes continue for days and days. “This is perhaps the most obvious sign of the new climate that has nothing to do with that of a few decades ago”. And what can we do? That’s a great question, because these heat waves (if, as they seem, they persist) will have a very clear consequence: Europe will have to change its real estate stock from “houses designed to keep the heat out” to “houses designed to keep it out.” We are facing one of the Image | Tropical TidBits In Xataka | The Gulf Stream is dying. Someone’s idea to solve it dates back to the 1950s: closing the Bering Strait

Five years ago, they said that Volkswagen was “the new Nokia.” Today it is the leader in electric vehicles in Europe while Tesla stagnates

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The era of traditional car manufacturers is over. We have to avoid being a new Nokia It was January 2020 and we were not very aware of what was coming our way when Herbert Diess, then CEO of the Volkswagen Group, pointed to another apocalypse. Specifically, that of traditional manufacturers in the face of the emergence of the electric car. Tesla was the reference when the top leader of the German firm spoke about his own company as if it were about to fall into ostracism. Today, six years later, the Volkswagen Group sells one in four electric cars in Europe. Two other companies have already passed Tesla. And a China looms on the horizon. How we have changed. IF you want to understand how much and how the electric car has grown in Europe you just have to take a look at how was the market five years ago. In 2020the best-selling electric car was the Renault Zoe, which reached close to 100,000 units on the market. It was followed by the Tesla Model 3, which was close to 88,000 units and already had a 6% market share. By then, the Tesla Model Y, which would soon become the best-selling electric car in Europe and the world (even including combustion ones), had not yet arrived. Of the 10 best-selling electric vehicles, the Volkswagen Group had three classifieds that barely added up 9% market share. In those days, Tesla seemed like the benchmark. A brand with a single model had managed to sneak into the top 10 best-selling electric cars. The first large mass electric SUV had not arrived. And even the leaders of Volkswagen feared for the future of their own company. The new Nokia. “The era of the classic car manufacturers is over. This is probably the most difficult challenge that Volkswagen has ever faced,” said Herbert Diess in January 2020 in statements reported by Reuters. And he put the finishing touch, if Volkswagen did not advance quickly it would become “the new Nokia.” The company embarked on a launch plan to put electric cars on the market at full speed. Along the way he started a questionable plan in which it was reached develop a single platform for two cars that arrived with enormous delay. And Cariad, which should have been a company of key software development for the brand, was unable to give them software up to par. In the years to come, Tesla ate up much of the European market although its relevance plummeted since last year. In 2022 Its market share among electric vehicles remained at 13%. In 2023 shot up to 18% and in 2024 it remained at 17%. The big fall came with 2025 in which it remained at just 8%. And things aren’t looking better this year. Overcome. In the first quarter of 2026, Tesla appears to have remained somewhat stagnant as more and more companies begin to add electric vehicles to the market. The Tesla Model Y continues to lead sales and the Tesla Model 3 is the third best-selling electric car in Europe. But electric sales have skyrocketed in Europe and Elon Musk’s people are not taking full advantage. In the first quarter of the year, have been sold in the European Union 546,937 electric cars, 32% more than in the same period in 2025. And the market share now almost reaches 20%, some four points above the figures from twelve months ago. In that period, Tesla has increased its overall market share from 1.3% to 2.0% and among electrics it has risen to just above 10%. However, traditional companies are pushing hard. The Volkswagen Group, which has added the arrival of more affordable cars like the Skoda Elroq (among the three best sellers in Europe) and has renewed a large part of the fleet it already had under its own brand sales have skyrocketed. And Stellantis or Hyundai/Kia threaten to overtake Tesla. BYD is also among the best sellers in Europe. Carefully. When taking European sales data, some care must be taken and it is preferable to make readings by quarter. And Tesla continues to have an enormous dependence on registrations in the last month of each quarter. The transition from March to April is a good example of this. And, as we said, in March Tesla marked a 10% market share among electric vehicles but in April there are already records (in the absence of those from ACEA) that lThey leave you at 8.9%. These fluctuations are more than common but they show that Tesla continues to be irregular in its month-to-month growth. The same as almost always. Despite the fluctuations, the truth is that Tesla has not managed to capitalize on the increase in electric sales as expected. Elon Musk himself anticipated global sales of 20 million units impossible things that seem very difficult to achieve, if not impossible. The company has been working to put smaller and more accessible models of the Model Y and Model 3 on the market with which to face the arrival of new launches from traditional brands. That has not happened and along the way they are being eaten up by those companies that were said to be “the new Nokia.” Furthermore, they have to face the arrival of a BYD that has burst in force. The Chinese company is already among the 10 manufacturers that sell the most electric vehicles in Europe and its deployment is in full takeoff ramp. Additionally, their success with plug-in hybrids is helping them raise awareness of the brand. For example (and although their plug-in hybrids are taken into account here), in the first quarter they sold 50,646 units in Europe, compared to 18,782 units in the same period of 2025. Photo | Carter Baran and Aidan Hancock In Xataka | Tesla wanted to make 20 million cars in 2030. The reality in 2025 is that Tesla has crashed and BYD is already leading

In its leap to electric cars, Europe fears total dependence on China. Your solutions arrive (quite) late

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The rope tightens. This time it is Europe that pulls to its side. Or, at least, that is what he wants according to what is stated in Financial Timeswhere we read that the European Union wants to force car manufacturers to reduce their level of dependence on China. Now, forcing them to buy fewer components from their suppliers. A new goal. It is, according to Financial Timeswhat the European Union wants to impose on companies in key sectors such as automobiles, industrial machinery or the chemical sector. In the newspaper’s information we read that European institutions are looking for tools to put pressure on their own companies. In the information, which is attributed to two European officials familiar with this project, the objective is to put a limit on the percentage of components that can be supplied to a single country. That is, if a company wants to manufacture a product in Europe, it could not buy all of its components (or the vast majority) from China. To distribute the purchases. If the project goes ahead as we read in the British media, a company could only buy between 30 and 40% of its components from the same country. It is sought that, at least, the origin of the parts that, in this case, make up a car is from three suppliers and from at least three different countries. This would not be much of a problem if it were not for the fact that the 30-40% barrier could not be overcome. “Gradually dependent”. “In many areas we are gradually becoming dependent on China’s exports,” the words are from a senior European Union official consulted by the newspaper. According to Financial Timesthe organizations are very aware of the extent to which a stoppage of Chinese factories or exports can damage the European economy. In fact, last summer some factories had to stop or saw their production compromised after China put greater impediments to export of products in which rare earths are used such as the magnets in electric car motors. Just a few months later, The Nexperia crisis once again set off the alarms of possible interruptions in the supply chain since a good part of the chips used by the European industry uses components from this company. They are not key products for its operation but without them, a car cannot be sold because They are essential for auxiliary but basic functions How to raise and lower the car window. 1 billion. That is what, according to Financial Timesthey calculate in the European Union that we lose to China. 1,000 million euros of deficit in the trade balance. 1,000 million. Diaries. The figure has been floating for two years now. and the automotive industry is one of those that has suffered the most. According to the European Union, they have achieved this with a doped industry, which has led to the lifting of tariffs on electric cars arriving from China. And the Chinese manufacturers have wanted to land abroad on our continent but also the Europeans have wanted to manufacture in China because it was cheaper. Spain? According to Anfac dataIn Spain we have a deficit in our trade balance of 5,000 million euros annually if we talk about components. As the second largest car producer in Europe, our auxiliary fabric is not enough and we need to buy components worth 16,893 million euros when exports exceed 11,525 million euros. There is no data on the origin of these imported components but we do know that The second country that exports the most cars to Spain is China. Last year, 9.2% of cars purchased in our country from outside our borders arrived from China. Very far, yes, from the German 26%. The problem is that despite importing cars worth almost 2.7 billion euros, China does not appear among the 10 countries to which we export the most cars and we barely place 658 million euros in exports to all of Asia. The game of balance. Yet the European Union is discovering that perhaps it has arrived late to the trade battle. Yes, it has lifted tariffs on electric cars sold from China but the country’s tentacles reach deep into vehicles made in Europe, producing all kinds of cheap components but also producing key technology such as semiconductors or batteries of electric cars. China is aware that it can squeeze European industry but it also needs our trade to export all the cars that are already surplus there. It is no coincidence that Europe has not imposed tariffs on cars arrived with combustion engines and? have negotiated with China the possibility of lifting trade barriers to electric cars. The Band-Aid. Until now, a very important part of the components used in European cars had their origin within the borders of the European Union itself. However, China’s weight has skyrocketed in recent years. In 2024, China has already become the main exporter of cars to Europe and the weight of its components within the cars manufactured here is increasingly greater, which reduces the competitiveness of our exports, according to this report BBVA. This imbalance is doubly worrying because the European Union is trying to reduce Chinese dependence now that it is seeking to make the definitive leap to the electric car, a technology where the Asian country dominates the supply chain. In recent months, Europe has tried to curb dependence promoting mineral mining on our soil or battery production but Chinese dependence remains evident. Photo | Michael Fourset and Sou Jest In Xataka | Japan has been charging a 0% tariff on foreign cars for half a century. It will be very difficult for you to find one on the street.

Europe has been a spectator of robotaxis for years. Madrid has just decided that it is okay

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The robotaxis They have already landed in some cities around the world, but their use is still testimonial. Even more so in Europealthough everything indicates that soon we will be talking more and more about this type of vehicles. In fact, just as they count In Expansión, in Madrid we are going to see the very first pilot test in December of autonomous taxis with the main VTC platforms on the market. It will be the first real-scale pilot test of the European Union. What has happened. In the last quarter of this year, the Community of Madrid will launch the first EU robotaxis pilot project with real passengers. Uber, Cabify and Bolt will participate in the initiative, although the call is open to more companies with which it is already negotiating. The test will start in Madrid capital and two other municipalities yet to be confirmed, with routes in previously defined and controlled areas. Just like share From the middle, the initial fleet will be between 50 and 100 vehicles with level 5 automation, that is, without the need for a human driver at the wheel. Why is it a milestone? Until now, no European city had launched a project of such magnitude. The only previous experience in the EU was a very limited test in Zagreb with just two vehicles. The rest of the world is years ahead, and the fact is that Waymo already operates about 3,000 autonomous cars in American cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles or Phoenix and has accumulated more than 20 million journeys. in Chinacompanies such as Apollo Go (Baidu), Pony.ai and WeRide have more than 5,500 vehicles in circulation. Europe, on the other hand, had not yet taken the step. How the pilot will work. According to share From Expansión, in a first phase, the vehicles will have a human supervisor on board whose function will be to monitor the automated driving system and inform users about the technology. After a few weeks, and depending on the data collected, we will move on to the driverless phase. To do this, the user will reserve the car from their mobile phone, access the vehicle with their phone and arrive at their destination without anyone in the driver’s seat. Among the vehicle manufacturers that could participate are Jaguar, the Stellantis group and the Chinese brand Arcfox (of the BAIC group). From the media they indicate that the technological operators will be already established companies such as WeRide, Baidu, Pony.ai or Waymo. Legislation. The General Directorate of Traffic has been working since 2015 in a legal framework for automated vehiclesand the Community of Madrid has promoted the creation of the Office for Vehicles and Automated Mobility (OFVA). The pilot has, in this sense, the mission of collecting real usage data to then lay the foundations for future legislation on autonomous transport in Spain. The protocols include specific training for police, firefighters and emergency services. Anabel Díaz, vice president of Uber for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, counted to Expansión that Madrid has “the opportunity to be at the forefront of Europe.” Deployment in Europe. A few months ago, Lyft announced an alliance with the Chinese Baidu to launch robotaxis in the United Kingdom and Germany throughout 2026. Uber, for its part, already has agreements with more than 18 autonomous driving companies globally. Europe is rapidly becoming the next battlefield for autonomous transportation, and the large platforms know that whoever arrives first with regulatory muscle will have an advantage. And now what. The success of the test will depend on whether the data collected is sufficient to build a solid regulation, that users show reasonable acceptance of the technology, and that the companies that intend to participate want to continue investing in the technology. Uber has already indicated that plans to make large investments in this field in Madrid. All eyes are now on the project, as Spain could become a reference laboratory for robotaxis, like the rest of the European capitals that are already on the eve of landing the technology. We’ll see how everything turns out. Cover image | Amy Dugiere In Xataka | China has been boasting about its driverless robotaxis for years. Until more than 100 have stood at once in Wuhan

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