European car makers should be helped to develop small affordable city cars in a bid to radically shrink their carbon footprint.

Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo set out his vision for a competitive - and low-carbon - European automotive industry in an open letter to political leaders before the forthcoming European elections.

He proposes an industrial strategy to develop small cars which is one of ten major European projects in strategic areas that includes revolutionising last-mile delivery, developing charging infrastructure, V2G technology and increasing semiconductor manufacturing capacity.

“If all the parking spaces in Paris were sized for small city cars,” said de Meo, “the space saved would be equivalent to 55 football stadiums in the same city. These cars would also significantly improve air quality in cities - one city in four suffers from poor air quality with 39% of emissions being caused by road traffic.

“They would also be an ideal alternative in the international arena: compact cars are between 20 and 30% cheaper than average; they could create a growth surplus for Europe (€500 million in GDP per year) and create over 10,000 jobs in industry.”