FILE cars give off exhaust fumes as children head to school in Frankfurt, Germany on Monday, February 27, 2023. Germany and the European Union said on Saturday, March 25, 2023, that they reached an agreement on the future of cars with combustion engines, allowing the registration of new vehicles with combustion engines even after 2035 if they use climate-neutral fuel only. AP Photo Michael Probst, File ASSOCIATED PRESS BERLIN AP - Germany and the European Union agreed on Saturday that they have reached an agreement on the future of cars with combustion engines, allowing the registration of new vehicles with such engines even after 2035 provided they use climate-neutral fuel only.
The EU Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans said that they had reached an agreement with Germany on the future use of e-fuels in cars. The way has been cleared for vehicles with internal combustion engines that use only climate-neutral fuels to be registered even after 2035, according to German Transport Minister Volker Wissing.
Wissing wrote that we preserve important options for climate-neutral and affordable mobility for Europe.
An initial proposal by the European Union on new carbon dioxide emission standards for cars was postponed due to opposition from Germany. The EU had wanted to ban the sale of all new cars with combustion engines from 2035.
Germany had demanded an exemption for cars that burn e-fuels, but Germany said they could be produced using renewable energy and carbon captured from the air so they wouldn't spew further climate-changing emissions into the atmosphere.
Wissing said they had agreed on concrete procedural steps and that a specific timetable has been made binding. He said that the process is going to be completed by fall 2024.
Timmermans wrote that we will work on getting the CO 2 standards for cars regulation adopted as soon as possible. The issue has led to an ideological wedge within the German government between Wissing's libertarian Free Democratic Party and the environmentalist Green Party, which had backed a ban on combustion engines.
Germany s main opposition party, the center-right Union bloc, opposes an EU-wide ban on combustion engine vehicles, warning that it would harm the country's prized auto industry.
Critics say battery-electric technology is a better fit for passenger cars and precious synthetic fuels should only be used where no other option is feasible, such as in aviation.