EU centre-right decides future of combustion engines in early July

Euractiv has learnt that the European People’s Party (EPP) will use its ‘study days’ on 2-5 July in Cascais, Portugal, to determine how to ensure a post-2035 future for cars with an internal combustion engine – one of its core promises in the European elections.

The EPP secured the most seats in the European elections, and German conservatives CDU/CSU remain the most powerful national delegation within EPP. A political push to revoke the EU’s 2035 de-facto ban on internal combustion engine-powered cars therefore seems likely.

“Withdrawing the ban on combustion engines was one of our core demands in the election campaign,”  Jens Gieseke, an EPP member of the European Parliament, from Northern Germany, told Euractiv.

The EPP will now have to decide what this means in practice.

“There are various options,” Gieseke – who led the negotiations for EPP on the file in the last legislative cycle – said. “I can’t yet say what exactly we will do.”

The group will meet for ‘study days’ in Cascais, Portugal from 2-5 July, where it will formulate its demands for the next European Commission’s legislative agenda, including on how to revise car CO2 standards, said Gieseke.

Currently, the EU’s CO2 standards require car manufacturers to reduce their average tailpipe emissions by 100% as of 2035 – which de-facto bans the sale of new cars with an internal combustion engine. The used-car market is unaffected.

As part of a deal stuck with German transport minister Volker Wissing (FDP/Renew) to pass these CO2 standards, the Commission committed to create a new legal category for cars running exclusively on synthetic, climate-neutral fuels – known as ‘e-fuels only’. These cars would count as zero-emissions and would be allowed, even after the 2035 target kicks in.

“The process of implementing the ‘e-fuels only’ category is progressing very slowly,” said Gieseke.

Volker Wissing told Euractiv in May that the delay was due to the car industry needing more time to define technical criteria, ensuring that ‘e-fuel only’ cars can be filled with e-fuels only, and not conventional fuels, which are chemically near identical.

However, there is also an unresolved dispute between member states on the climate-neutrality criteria that should apply for eligible e-fuels.

Carbon Correction Factor, 90% target

To revoke the de-facto ban on new internal combustion engines, the EPP mulls re-introducing the amendments it unsuccessfully proposed back in 2022.

This includes a so-called “Carbon Correction Factor” (CCF) that sees the overall share of alternative fuels – such as biofuels or e-fuels, which are not based on crude oil – counting towards CO2 reduction targets.

It would allow new petrol or diesel vehicles to be sold after 2035, as long as an equivalent volume of alternative fuels is added to the overall fuel mix.

Another idea is to lower the 100% emissions reduction obligation for carmakers to 90%.

Gieseke said he would also support Wissing’s ‘e-fuels only’ car category, which – unlike the Carbon Correction Factor – allows new cars to be fueled with e-fuels only.

“I don’t yet know whether the new members of the parliamentary group will follow my line [90% target + CCF + an ‘e-fuels only’ category],” said Gieseke

Once agreed, however, “I would like to see a proposal from the EU Commission as soon as possible, i.e. as early as 2025.”

E-fuels only

E-fuels can be produced with CO2 either captured from the atmosphere or – until 2041, as per EU rules – taken from industrial sites such as cement factories.

“It makes no sense to run combustion engines on fossil fuels in the future because then we won’t become climate neutral. On the other hand, it also makes no sense for us to forego the e-fuels option,” said Wissing in May.

He agreed to the EU’s CO2 rules, only after then Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans made a written commitment to exempt ‘e-fuel only’ cars. However the leader of his liberal party, Christian Lindner, said after the elections that this will not be enough.

Revoking the combustion engine ban “should go beyond the exception for e-fuels and achieve a change by 2026 at the latest,” said Lindner on the Monday after the European Elections.

He made this one of three conditions to support a second-term of Ursula von der Leyen as Commission President. The EU’s CO2 legislation requires a review of targets in 2026.

“Our conditions remain unchanged,” an FDP party spokesperson confirmed to Euractiv on Thursday (20 June).

Without the FDP’s support, German chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD/S&D) might be forced to abstain in the European Council, on any vote to reappoint von der Leyen. However this would not necessarily prevent her from winning the nomination.

[Edited by Donagh Cagney/Rajnish Singh]

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