Julia Poliscanova, Senior Director, Electric Vehicles & Batteries at Transport & Environment, joined Ambreen Mir  for an insightful Q&A session, discussing the future of EV adoption in Europe. She shared her expertise on key regulatory changes shaping the EV landscape, debunked common misconceptions about demand, and highlighted the steps needed to build a resilient and sustainable EV supply chain. Additionally, she emphasised the importance of ethically securing critical minerals and outlined the crucial discussions that should take center stage at the Fifth Annual London EV Show.

Ambreen: With evolving policies across Europe, what key regulatory changes do you see shaping the future of EV adoption, and how can policymakers ensure a smooth transition for both consumers and manufacturers?

Julia Poliscanova: Long-term vision and clear policy are at the forefront of growing EV sales across the world. In Europe, the EU’s car CO2 standards and the UK’s ZEV mandate are leading the charge. These measures are pushing carmakers to change their business models, invest into electrification and bring more affordable EV models to the market. This is key to consumer adoption.

Alongside these supply-side policies, however, important enabling conditions are important. E.g. ensuring a smooth charging roll-out, as done with the infrastructure law in the EU that requires all countries to install minimum amounts of public chargers. Similarly, smart incentives for both consumers and industrial suppliers to benefit are important. Today in Europe we see a bigger focus shifting to incentivising corporate fleets to go electric faster, as well as better industrial and trade policies to onshore some of the key EV and battery supply chains locally. 

Ambreen: Despite strong market growth, skepticism around EV demand persists. What are the most common misconceptions, and how do you see real-world adoption trends countering these narratives?

Julia Poliscanova: Some are saying that electric car adoption is slowing, pointing to consumers getting out of love with EVs. But linear annual sales growth predicted by some forecasters was always fanciful. This is not how the real-world works. 

T&E predicted years back that the European EV market would stagnate in 2023/4. This is due to the stop-go nature of the EU car emission rules. The targets get tighter once every five years, resulting in something of a lull in the in-between years. This partially explains the setback seen in 2024 as expensive EV models dominated the market. 

But early 2025 saw dozens of new more affordable mass market EV models hit the market, including Renault 5 and Citroen eC3. As a result, the EV sales grew by almost 40% in January 2025 alone, showing a changing trend.

Ambreen: The push for localized battery production is intensifying. What key steps should Europe take to secure a resilient and sustainable EV supply chain, particularly for battery manufacturing?

Julia Poliscanova: A comprehensive strategy for battery supply chains is what the EU should focus on. This should include an investigation into unfair battery subsidies in China to increase the battery import tariffs, resilience criteria for the granting of subsidies and EU funding, as well as binding grid-based carbon footprint rules for batteries to access the EU market. Crucially, a much bigger package of investment support, focused on production aid to help scaling up and higher operational costs – similar to what the US IRA is doing – is urgently needed for the local players to catch up. 

With over 650 GWh of battery capacity coming from South Korean and Chinese players, clear rules on foreign direct investment to ensure comprehensive technology and skills transfer are equally needed.

Ambreen: Given the global competition for critical minerals essential to EVs, how should Europe balance supply security while maintaining sustainability and ethical sourcing practices?

Julia Poliscanova: The EU’s strategy to secure critical minerals should be two-fold. On the one hand, the EU should accelerate the build-out of local capacity, focusing in particular on processing and recycling. This is what the new Critical Raw Materials Act, and its strategic projects are trying to do, but the implementation has so far been slow. The act already upholds the key environmental requirements, while the upcoming supply chain due diligence rules should be effectively implemented, not rolled back. 

On the other hand, global diplomacy with resource-rich countries must be stepped up and go beyond partnerships and MoUs. The EU should focus on projects and go as far as to take stake in key strategic projects directly. With this comes the power to also control the environmental and social conditions under which those projects are operating. 

Ambreen: As we gear up for the Fifth Annual London EV Show, what key discussions do you believe should take center stage to accelerate the EV transition and strengthen Europe’s role in the global market?

Julia Poliscanova: With security and defence at the centre of the EU's debate today, there needs to be a serious conversation about the security and resilience benefits of electrification. EVs should be seen as not only clean, but freedom vehicles – freeing us from authoritarian oil imports. A much bigger conversation is needed on how to build local and clean battery supply chains quickly as this is where Europe is clearly behind. Finally, EVs should become accessible to all – that means focusing on specific policies designed to improve access of low income groups, e.g. low cost leasing programmes or shared EV mobility options.