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Petrol pump in Bavaria: "Driven by ideology, not by facts"

Photo: Rolf Poss / IMAGO

For the first time, a German company wants to take legal action against the ban on combustion engines decided at EU level. This is reported by the »Welt am Sonntag«. The Lühmann Group, which is active in the trading of synthetic fuels, wants to overturn parts of the EU regulation passed in March, according to which newly registered passenger cars must be emission-free from 2035.

It sounds "nice to only allow emission-free cars," Lorenz Kiene, the head of the Lühmann Group, told the newspaper. However, the EU's plan is "driven by ideology, not facts". The Lühmann Group criticises the planned ban on internal combustion engines in particular that the EU only considers cars that do not emit exhaust gases to be emission-free. However, it makes "no sense to measure emissions only at the tailpipe," said company boss Kiene. Instead, CO₂ emissions should be "recorded over the entire life cycle of a vehicle".

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According to the e-fuel dealer's ideas, combustion engines that only fill up with climate-friendly fuel should continue to be allowed – and the fuels should also be able to be counted towards the fleet limits that car manufacturers in Europe must meet. Only then, says Kiene, would companies build such vehicles.

Internal combustion engines powered by so-called e-fuels are not emission-free. However, because the CO₂ required to produce the fuel is taken from industrial plants or from the air, for example, they are considered climate-neutral in the balance sheet if the electricity used for production was in turn produced with renewable energies.

EU Commission apparently presents strict proposal

Actually, only CO₂-free new cars may be registered in the European Union (EU) from 2035. On the initiative of Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP), Germany pushed through an exception so that cars with combustion engines can still be operated with e-fuels, at least theoretically.

The EU Commission is currently working to implement the compromise, and the details are eagerly awaited. A first draft law was presented to the Reuters news agency on Friday. According to this, the engines should actually only be able to be refueled with completely CO₂-neutral e-fuels. This is feasible through devices to monitor the chemical properties of the fuel. The proposal is expected to be published later this year.

According to the eFuel Alliance, the legislative plan requires a 100 percent reduction in CO₂ emissions, which includes the entire value chain, including the transport of fuels. This means that the ban on the internal combustion engine in 2035 will remain," criticized the association, which includes e-fuel manufacturers as well as companies in the automotive and petroleum industries. As long as transport and distribution are not also secured by means of renewable energies, no complete reduction in emissions can be achieved," explained Ralf Diemer, head of the association.

Climate activists skeptical

Many climate activists are sceptical about synthetic fuels overall. Cars powered by e-fuels could "have just as low emissions as electric cars," Falko Ueckerdt of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research told Welt am Sonntag. Nevertheless, the narrative of e-fuels in road transport threatens to harm climate protection. The narrative is "unrealistic" and delays the necessary transformation towards electric cars, Ueckerdt said. The fuels would be needed elsewhere, for example for aircraft and ships, which could hardly be operated with electricity.

Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr recently made a similar statement at the IAA: In the foreseeable future, just enough synthetic fuels could be produced to meet the airlines' needs. They have hardly any alternatives for their aircraft to save CO₂ – while cars can be easily electrified.

slü/AFP/Reuters