The head of Mercedes-Benz has warned that excluding the United Kingdom from the EU's Industrial Accelerator Act — the package widely billed as the 'Made in Europe' law — could harm car industries on both sides of the Channel. The intervention has reignited the debate over post-Brexit trade relations just as Brussels prepares rules designed to favor vehicles built in Europe.
The urgency behind the legislation is not hard to find. Chinese-built electric vehicles have passed 20 percent of total EV sales in the EU in 2026, according to the Brussels-based economic think tank Bruegel — equivalent to more than 5 percent of all vehicle sales. France and Germany argue that regulatory flexibility is needed to protect existing jobs and manufacturing competitiveness, even as China's own producers contend with fierce price competition, weaker profitability and high debt.
What exactly counts as 'made in Europe' is the crux. A senior German official, speaking in Seoul, said the EU's planned rules favoring European-made cars are not aimed at Korea, and that Hyundai and Kia vehicles produced in Europe could qualify — though strict local-content requirements remain under negotiation. For every brand with European production, those thresholds will decide who sits inside the tent and who is left outside it.
The Mercedes warning adds the UK to that equation. If London is excluded from the framework, both UK and EU car industries could suffer, the company's leadership cautions, given how deeply integrated their supply chains remain. With the definition of 'European' still being hashed out in Brussels, plants, suppliers and governments far beyond the EU's core economies have a direct stake in where the lines are drawn.
For buyers and dealers, policy shifts of this kind eventually surface as changes in choice and pricing on the forecourt, which makes comparing offers across markets more valuable than ever. Readers looking for a vehicle — European-built or imported — can find sensational cars at sensational conditions at WorldTrader24, Europe's marketplace with over 70,000 vehicles.
