- The ban on cars with internal combustion engines may be postponed to 2040
- Manufacturers opposed the law
- More hybrid powertrains and longer-range engines are likely to emerge.
A report in German newspaper Bild this week claims that plans to introduce a ban on the sale of new internal combustion engine cars in the European Union in 2035 have been postponed, the newspaper said. Reuters.
Manfred Weber – president of the EPP, the largest party in the European Parliament – has reportedly said that the plans are “not on the table” and that a more flexible emissions reduction system will be introduced instead.
“For new registrations from 2035 onwards, CO2 emissions reductions will now be mandatory for car manufacturers by 90% instead of 100%,” Weber told Bild.
There is still a vision to cut CO2 emissions by 100%, but Weber says this has now been delayed until 2040. The move was apparently made to provide “tens of thousands of industrial jobs.”
Unsurprisingly, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Stellantis Group and Renault have campaigned for the ban to be lifted, arguing that decisions should be made by customers rather than driven by legislation.
The original plan, signed in 2021, was to ban the sale of any new internal combustion engine vehicles, effectively forcing automakers to sell only pure electric vehicles by 2035.
However, many manufacturers argue that the timeline is too tight and that there is simply no demand from consumers for electric vehicles.
This is why major players such as Porsche And Fordhave retreated from purely electric plans in recent months.
Porsche, for example, assumed that both the new Macan and Cayenne would be fully electric, but then changed its mind and said that both gasoline and hybrid cars would be offered in the future.
The UK, although no longer part of the European Union, was among the first countries to offer a sales range for ICE cars back in 2020, but it has yet to say what its plans are following Weber's announcement.
Analysis: Electric vehicles remain inevitable
While the deadline could potentially be pushed back by five years, there are still plans to cut CO2 emissions by 90%, which remains a challenging target for many manufacturers.
This means that anything with an internal combustion engine will likely become a plug-in hybrid or range extender hybrid to comply with the legislation.
It could also accelerate the use of modern biofuels and e-fuels, as they can be certified carbon neutral if produced using captured CO2 and renewable electricity.
The proposed deadline relaxation would give automakers more time to make the seemingly inevitable transition to pure electric propulsion. In the meantime, they can still develop hybrid powertrains that are popular with customers for their efficiency without worrying about range.
Despite this, over the next 15 years, most major automakers will continue to focus on clean electric vehicles to achieve 100 percent CO2 reduction targets, while newcomers to the clean electric vehicle space—especially brands from China—will continue to have a competitive advantage.
Not only can they produce competitive EVs more cheaply, but they also lack the historical heritage of producing ICE powertrains and therefore the accompanying range and performance figures.
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