No more diesel and petrol engines: EU agreement on climate neutral new cars from 2035 More protests in Tehran and sacked police chief in Sahedan

The EU Member States and the European Parliament have reached an agreement on climate neutral new cars from 2035.

Representatives of the member states and the EU parliament in Brussels agreed that new cars with petrol and diesel engines will no longer be allowed into the EU from 2035, the Czech presidency announced on Thursday evening. With the ban on combustion engines, the EU is strongly committed to electromobility.

The agreement represents a historic EU decision on climate, said French MEP Pascal Canfin, head of the European Parliament’s environment committee. This confirms the target of 100 percent emission-free vehicles by 2035. According to Canfin, intermediate steps are planned for the years 2025 and 2030.

Crucial milestone

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen praised the agreement on Twitter as an important milestone in meeting our 2030 climate target. The new car regulation is part of a comprehensive climate protection package that aims to reduce the EU’s CO2 emissions by 55 percent by 2030.

There should be exceptions for manufacturers producing less than 10,000 cars a year – ie luxury car manufacturers such as Ferrari. The agreement also leaves open the possibility that in the future there will also be a green light for new cars with combustion engines powered by e-fuels.

E-fuels are usually produced from water and CO2 using electricity. Whether this is environmentally friendly depends on where the electricity comes from and the effort required to make the fuel available.

Green light in the EU parliament

An increased interest in synthetic fuels was rejected in the EU parliament, which agreed in early June to end the combustion engine from 2035.

With regard to the unification of the EU, German FDP leader Christian Lindner spoke of a wise decision that would ensure openness to technology. “One-sided political commitments on scientific and technical issues should be avoided,” he said on Twitter. (sda/afp)