What the EU actually plans to do with the combustion engine

Ten percent, but how?

However, the authority does not want to announce details of this turnaround until next Tuesday.

In principle, car manufacturers’ fleets – i.e. the average of all new vehicles they produce – should no longer emit 100 percent less carbon dioxide as originally planned, but only 90 percent. It remains unclear at the moment which engines will do this. In addition to pure electric drives, all types of hybrid vehicles could continue to be approved, including cars with a “range extender”, i.e. a small combustion engine that recharges the batteries of the electric motor.

Sustainably produced fuels

In principle, the EU Commission wants to approve all engine technologies that comply with carbon dioxide emission limits. These could be combustion engines that are particularly economical or run on sustainably produced fuels, such as green hydrogen, e-fuels made from it or biofuels made from plant products.

What the future of cars in the EU actually looks like after 2035 will not be decided by the EU Commission alone. The EU Parliament and the member states also have their say – and opinions differ widely among them in particular. Italy, for example, wants to give more importance to biofuels, while Scandinavian countries are relying entirely on electric motors.

That’s what the car trade says

Meanwhile, the Austrian car trade is not particularly impressed by the “softening” of the combustion engine ban. “The typical Austrian didn’t believe that the combustion engine would be phased out in 2035. Let’s see what really happens,” says Klaus Edelsbrunner, chairman of the vehicle dealers in the WKÖ, to the KURIER. “Customers are responding very strongly to hybrid vehicles. More than 60 percent of new registrations are hybrids. We have only had positive feedback.” While diesel cars used to be praised for their fuel economy, the “extremely economical” label now applies to hybrid vehicles.

“Many manufacturers have moved away from diesel and stopped developing combustion engines altogether,” says Edelsbrunner. “We have always demanded openness to technology. Our technicians are able to build gasoline and diesel engines that are very clean.” Postscript: “But the question arises as to how customers will accept combustion engines in the future.”

The fact is: The European car industry is now concentrating on hybrid and, above all, electric cars. “There is a very large range that is well received by customers,” says the vehicle dealer. “Nothing will change in retail in the near future.”