Norway, Denmark and Sweden have, as have Great Britain, France and the Netherlands.

Costa Rica and the American state of California are now among a number of countries or regions around the world that will no longer allow new cars with internal combustion engines to appear on their market at some point within the next 30 years.

They are all driven by the same goal: to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the transport sector.

One of the measures to comply with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change is to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial times.

But there are differences as far as the individual bans are concerned.

Martin Gropp

Editor in business.

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The number of those dropping out from combustion has recently continued to rise. For example, Spain or the province of British Columbia in Canada recently set their phase-out date to the year 2040. With the “Fit for 55” climate package presented on Wednesday, the European Union also effectively imposed an end year, namely 2035. As of June, the non-profit research organization International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), based in the United States, quantified the number itself appointed dropouts around the world thus to more than two dozen.

But which types of drive are banned where from which year - and which cars are still allowed, conversely - differs from country to country, from region to region.

In addition, it is often unclear whether the declarations of intent made so far will actually be implemented or whether future governments may withdraw the projects planned by their predecessors.

For this reason alone, saying goodbye to the internal combustion engine will not be an abrupt adieu, but rather a slow hello.

Norway is a global pioneer

This is already shown by the plans of the previously known dropouts. The range starts with clear cuts, as in the case of Norway. From 2025 onwards, only new zero-emission cars should be allowed there, including battery-powered cars or fuel cell vehicles whose electric drive is operated by hydrogen reacting with air and generating electricity for the electric drive of the cars. Plug-in hybrids, the main drive of which is a diesel or gasoline engine, do not count with their additional electric motor and the externally chargeable battery. The Netherlands will also only allow new zero-emission vehicles in the future, but not until 2030. Great Britain, on the other hand, is proceeding in two stages, initially banning new vehicles that run entirely on gasoline or diesel from 2030.However, plug-in hybrids will still be allowed until 2035.

There are also differences in the year of exit. In a good four years it will be so far in Norway, making the country a global pioneer. Denmark, Ireland and Slovenia want their combustion ban to apply from 2030. The farthest away are the exits from Costa Rica or from American states such as New York, Oregon or Vermont. The combustion ban is to take effect there from 2050.

The year 2035 now presented for the EU, from which the carbon dioxide emissions of new cars should be zero, still leaves some room for interpretation. But the recently tightened emission standards in the EU would be tantamount to a ban on pure combustion engines in individual markets, argues the automotive industry. According to manufacturers, only if the car manufacturers sell almost exclusively electric cars, at least in the major European markets, will they be able to compensate for the previously weak demand for electromobility and the corresponding higher sales of fossil-fuel-powered vehicles in other EU markets.