The end of the combustion engine car is now really in sight in Europe. On Thursday evening, negotiators from the European Parliament and EU member states reached an agreement on an end date for petrol and diesel cars and vans. From 2035, only passenger vehicles that do not contain CO . may be sold in the EU2 expel.
The new car standard is the first major climate proposal from the ‘Green Deal’ of European Commissioner Frans Timmermans on which the EU has reached an agreement. It is no coincidence that this plan was the first to be negotiated, says Timmermans in a statement. According to him, it shows how much the European car industry, and therefore also thinking in the EU, is already making the switch to emission-free mobility. “The speed with which this change has taken place in recent years is remarkable.”
That does not mean that the new target could be adopted without a fight. Traditionally, the car lobby in Brussels is very powerful, and during these negotiations manufacturers also tried to water down the plans presented last year. “Everything that has to do with cars is heavily politically charged,” explains GroenLinks MEP Bas Eickhout, who participated in the negotiations about the goal. “It was a tough battle to keep the Commission’s 2035 target.”
The now agreed law should give car manufacturers an even clearer horizon, emphasizes VVD MEP Jan Huitema, who was the chief negotiator on the file on behalf of the EP. “With these goals, we bring clarity to the automotive industry and encourage innovation and investment for automakers.”
Huitema also pointed to the “high symbolic value to the rest of the world.” EU negotiators were keen to finalize the standard ahead of the COP climate summit in Egypt next month. Last year the EU was able to present its target to reduce emissions by 55 percent by 2035, now it can also highlight the first concrete legislation for this. EU officials still hope that an agreement on other aspects can also be reached quickly, including the agreement on national emission reduction targets. But the disagreement about other plans in the climate package is significantly greater than about the car standard and whether it will be reached quickly is highly questionable.
Exception
That this goal is now firmly set is a breakthrough, but in the negotiations car manufacturers, and the countries in which they are traditionally influential, managed to get small commitments. For example, at the insistence of Berlin, the European Commission will have to reassess in a few years’ time whether cars containing ‘CO2-neutral fuels” should not still be allowed. According to those involved, the chance that this will lead to actual changes in the law is small.
An exception was made for small car manufacturers – a lobby that was mainly led by Italy, homeland of Maserati, Lamborghini and Ferrari, among others. Manufacturers that produce fewer than 10,000 cars per year will be given a one-year extension to achieve the zero-emission fleet. Ferrari is in danger of missing out on that exception: the Italian automaker manufactured just over 11,000 vehicles last year.
Standard too weak
The legislation also includes an interim target of a 55 percent reduction by 2030. That standard is too weak, says Julia Poliscanova of the NGO Transport & Environment (T&E), who also criticized the lack of an interim target for 2025 and the lack of clear EU-wide industrial policy for the automotive sector. “Foreign car manufacturers are ahead of Europeans,” said Poliscanova. Organizational data recently showed already that the share of electric cars from Chinese makers in the EU is growing rapidly. Without tougher interim targets and subsidy plans, such as those recently presented in the US, Europe risks falling behind globally, according to T&E.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of October 29, 2022