The European Commission has ended and will extend the life of the combustion car beyond 2035. Less than two years ago, the veto on the sale of this type of vehicle within 10 years was approved. But the measure has clashed with manufacturers, a very powerful sector due to the investments and quality employment it creates, almost since before it was born. They have been joined this term by the powerful European People’s Party (EPP), led by the conservatives of Germany, where this industry is of great importance. Finally, this Tuesday Brussels has proposed a series of measures that partially blur that goal set for 10 years.
The battle has been bloody. Not only within the European Executive. Also between the Member States. Germany, Italy, Poland and others were betting on devaluing the ban on combustion cars. Spain, no. France was pressing to include measures that would boost vehicle manufacturing made in Europe. And, of public statements and, of course, of lesser-known movements.
From the result, it can be said that Berlin can be satisfied. Now the goal is that from 2035, manufacturers will reduce emissions by 100%, that is, the end of combustion cars. With the new proposal, that bar is lowered to 90%. There are only ten points, but they give room for plug-in hybrid cars to extend their life, a type of combustion vehicle in which there have been brands that have invested a lot, such as Mercedes.
That 10% reduction will not be achieved in exchange for nothing. The manufacturer who wants to benefit from it will have to use steel manufactured with low carbon content, another way to help a European industry, the steel industry, which is going through a bad time due to the overcapacity of manufacturing installed around the world, especially in China, which floods the market with metals produced with lower costs and environmental requirements.
There is another measure that aims to the same extent as the dilution of the 2035 veto. Commercial vehicles, smaller vans or pickup trucks, will have a less ambitious emissions reduction goal for 2030. The current regulation sets a 50% reduction for five years from now. Now it is proposed that it remain at 40%.
Even before Brussels announced the measure, the president of the EPP, Manfred Weber, was already congratulating himself on the step that the Commission later confirmed. “I am happy to have achieved the 90% target by 2035, which was clearly a demand of the European PP. We were amending this when the legislation was discussed three or four years ago.”
The Commission had already given in to the industry in March. This year, the first intermediate objective of the regulation had to be implemented, which seeks to advance until the ban in 2035. By 2025, manufacturers had to sell vehicles with an average carbon emissions of 93.6 grams per kilometer, an average that is calculated each year based on total sales, as provided by the standard. It was clear that they were not going to arrive and that they would have to pay around 15,000 million, according to the numbers of the European employers’ association for the sector, ACEA. Finally, a three-year calculation was established, not an annual one, by which companies gained two more years to adapt.
