EU and Germany reach compromise deal on combustion engines

The European Union (EU) and Germany announced they have agreed on a compromise on how new cars with combustion engines can be registered after 2035.

Frans Timmermans, executive vice president of the European Commission, announced on Twitter on March 25, that “We have found an agreement with Germany on the future use of efuels in cars. We will work now on getting the CO2-standards for cars regulation adopted as soon as possible, and the Commission will follow-up swiftly with the necessary legal steps to implement recital 11.”

Timmermans is leading the European Commission’s work on the European Green Deal and its aim to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050.

A landmark deal to prohibit the new sales of combustion engine vehicles from 2035 was key to the EU’s ambitious plan to become climate neutral by 2050. At the last minute, however, Germany, the EU’s largest carmaker, blocked the agreement although it had already been approved under the traditional EU legislative process and final approval was expected to be merely a formality. Weeks-long negotiations between the European Commission and Germany finally broke the impasse.

“In very detailed and constructive negotiations, we have succeeded in securing the element of technological neutrality within the framework of the regulation on fleet limits,” said Volker Wissing, Germany’s Federal Minister for Digital and Transport.

“This clears the way for vehicles with internal combustion engines that only use CO2-neutral fuels to be newly registered even after 2035. With this, an important point from the coalition agreement has also been implemented.”

The minister went on to say that above all “concrete procedural steps and a concrete timetable have been fixed in a binding manner.” 

A vehicle category e-fuels-only is to be created first and then integrated into the fleet limit regulation. 

“We want the process to be completed by autumn 2024,” said Wissing.