EU must revise combustion engine ban, bloc's largest party says

The European Union should revise its plan to effectively ban new combustion engine cars from 2035 amid a growing crisis in the automobile industry, the bloc’s largest political group warned.

The center-right European People’s Party said in a statement that the plan risks making driving too expensive and moving jobs in the auto sector to China. While the group stopped short of calling for a delay, it asked that the bloc follow a “technologically neutral" approach, generally understood as making provisions for e-fuels and solutions other than electrification.

“We must ensure that driving remains affordable for everyone, not just those who can afford expensive electric cars," said Jens Gieseke, an EPP lawmaker who helped lead negotiations on the ban.

The European Commission is due to review progress toward the 2035 goal of phasing out sales of new combustion engine-powered vehicles in 2026. Italy is pushing to bring that forward to next year and the bloc’s car lobby has called for “urgent action" to be taken over emissions limits coming in 2025, with the industry potentially facing billions of euros of fines.

Road transport is the only sector to have seen emissions climb since 1990, so any substantial tweaks to the rules could put into question the bloc’s broader goals to reach climate neutrality by 2050. Green groups say that the EU’s automakers, like Volkswagen AG, are already years behind companies in China, which are moving swiftly to electrification. The German company is considering factory closures for the first time in its history.

“We are following with high attention and with concern the recent developments in the automotive industry in the EU," Valdis Dombrovskis, the bloc’s trade chief told parliament on Tuesday. “We need to redouble our efforts so that the electrification pathway remains viable and broadly accepted."

Any changes will require a commission proposal and it has already signaled that it will allow a carve-out for so-called e-fuels, which are made using captured CO2 and renewable electricity, making them in theory net-zero emissions. Italy wants biofuels, made from crops, to also be included, but environmental groups say that they will never be able to meet the same threshold.

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The center-right EPP and groups further to the right have a majority in the bloc’s parliament to back any watering down of the rules, but the EU’s 27 member states would also need to agree.

Not all carmakers want the bloc to delay the 2035 regulation, arguing that the sector needs certainty to invest and support to meet EU climate goals.

Volvo Car AB and dozens of industrial manufacturers have urged Brussels to stick to the plan.

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