The ban on combustion engines is fixed

The ban on combustion engines is fixed

On March 28, the EU transport ministers passed the law to tighten the CO₂ fleet target for newly registered cars. Conclusion: From 2035, new cars that run on gasoline or diesel will no longer be allowed to be sold. Now the Commission still has to present the plan as to how it should still be possible to re-register cars fueled exclusively with e-fuels even after 2035. For these cars powered by synthetic fuels produced with renewable energy, a new vehicle category called “e-fuels only” is to be created and included in the fleet limit regulation. Those involved want to have completed the necessary steps by autumn 2024. The law only applies to newly registered cars. Existing vehicles are not affected by the new EU regulations. However, stricter pollution guidelines for air pollution control could mean that older cars will be affected by local driving bans.

The EU Commission had already proposed criteria for the approval of new vehicles that run exclusively on CO₂-neutral fuels in a letter to the federal government. These could include an obligation for manufacturers to integrate some kind of “defeat device” into new cars. This is intended to ensure that the engine no longer starts when the car is filled with fossil fuel. With the help of sensor technology, such a solution would be technically feasible. The passed law to phase out combustion engines obliges car manufacturers to gradually reduce the total CO₂ emissions of all cars they sell within a year, i.e. for the entire fleet. By 2030, CO₂ emissions from newly registered cars are expected to fall by 55 percent compared to 2021 and to zero by 2035.

With the law to phase out combustion engines, the EU is setting the course for electromobility: CO₂ emissions from the exhaust are used as the sole measurement variable - and according to the current state of technology, this requirement can only be met with electric cars or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Its production is to be strongly promoted in the next few years. However, experts assume that hydrogen will primarily be used in industry. At the beginning of 2023, over a million purely electric cars were already registered in Germany, and at the same time there were around 75,000 charging points in public spaces - and the trend is rising. In order to meet the growing demand, the German federal government has set a target of one million charging points by 2030. By then there should be 15 million electric cars in Germany.

According to the German motorists' club ADAC, there will be no ban on reselling used petrol or diesel engines in the future. The new law only applies to cars that are newly registered from January 1, 2035. Cars with combustion engines may therefore be resold and registered after this day - provided they are not the first registration. Even if most car manufacturers want to stop developing new combustion engines for the European market in the 2030s, diesel and gasoline-powered vehicles will continue to play a larger role thereafter. According to the ADAC, the supply of spare parts should therefore initially remain unproblematic. It remains to be seen how the EU transport minister's decision will affect price developments on the used combustion engine car market. According to experts, falling demand for older combustion engines, especially diesel vehicles with Euro 4 and 5 standards, could be offset by greater demand outside the EU.