Auto lobby urges Spain to speed up vehicle electrification as sales lag

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's auto industry is in dire need of an overhaul to catch up with European peers and speed up its electrification process as automakers struggle to recover from a pandemic-induced slump, the country's biggest manufacturers' lobby said on Tuesday.

As elsewhere in Europe, Spanish car production has been hampered in the past few years by semiconductor shortages, temporary factory closures and supply chain bottlenecks after the 2020 global outbreak of the COVID-19 disease.

"We cannot waste any more time," Wayne Griffiths, the head of the lobbying group ANFAC and chief executive of Volkswagen's Spanish unit SEAT, said while presenting the group's roadmap until 2025.

"We can't afford to let 2023 go by without taking ambitious decisions," he added. "Cosmetic measures are no longer enough."

Among the challenges the country's industry faces are weaker-than-expected electric vehicle (EV) sales, an ageing car fleet - which is stymieing emission reduction and safety goals - and a still-lacking charging infrastructure for EVs, Griffiths said.