Commissioner says EU to amend 2035 ban on new combustion engine cars

The EU’s transport commissioner, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, has said that the European Commission will propose to revise the union's planned 2035 ban on new combustion engine cars to include the role of e-fuels. In an interview with business daily Handelsblatt, Tzitzikostas said the European Commission would be “open to all technologies” when reviewing existing legislation on CO2 emission limits for vehicle fleets. 

The commissioner’s statement comes after months of debate across the EU about improving the competitiveness of the European automotive industry. Most recently, after a German coalition agreement last week, chancellor Friedrich Merz wrote a letter to the Commission calling for changes to the 2035 ban on new combustion engine cars. The letter, seen by Clean Energy Wire, calls for a "flexible and realistic regulation open to all technologies," which must meet climate targets "without threatening innovation and industrial value creation." The proposed changes include counting emissions saved through the use of sustainable products like green steel in car manufacturing towards the fleet CO2 emissions limits, and allowing new registrations of hybrid cars after 2035. Tzitzikostas said Merz’s letter had been received “very positively” in Brussels.

The European Commission would include “all technological developments” in the new vehicle fleet regulation, the commissioner said. This would also cover “the role of emissions-free and low-emissions fuels and advanced biofuels.” According to Handelsblatt, other senior Commission officials confirmed that this would mean new combustion engine cars could still be registered in the EU after 2035 if they are powered with biofuels or synthetic e-fuels.

The transport commissioner said the goal would be to achieve an “economically sound and socially fair” transition to climate-neutral propulsion systems in the automotive sector. “We want to stick to our targets but must factor in the latest geopolitical developments,” the commissioner from Greece added. This would mean that Europe has to find ways that strengthen its car industry in an upcoming “automotive package,” which will contain rules on vehicle CO2 emissions as well as new support mechanisms for electric vehicles in company car fleets. Tzitzikostas said the package, which was initially slated for release on 10 December, would now likely be delayed by several weeks.

EU member states in 2023 had agreed to introduce a ban on new registrations of vehicles that emit CO2 during operation by the middle of the next decade, effectively banning new combustion engine cars. The aim was to bring down stubbornly high emissions in the car sector, as the EU is moving towards climate neutrality by 2050. The former German government had also insisted on a role for e-fuels, and the Commission agreed to make a proposal for registering after 2035 vehicles running exclusively on CO2 neutral fuels, outside the scope of the fleet emissions limits. However, a draft has not yet entered into force. 

New proposals on how to regulate transport sector emissions made by the European Commission must subsequently be approved by the EU’s member states and by the European Parliament before entering into force. Transport NGOs had harshly criticised the German chancellor’s approach, arguing that the U-turn on regulation would complicate the transition to EVs and worsen employment prospects in the car industry.