Brussels (AFP)

The gasoline or diesel car has lived, the future is electric.

Brussels is due to propose Wednesday to reduce CO2 emissions from new vehicles to zero over the next decade to fight climate change.

A page of history is turning.

For more than a century, the Old Continent, the cradle of prestigious brands, has dominated automotive innovation.

At the heart of its know-how, heat engines considered to be the most efficient in the world.

But the car, the first mode of travel for Europeans, is criticized for its greenhouse gas emissions.

Faced with this emergency, the EU has tightened its CO2 reduction targets in 2020 and is aiming for carbon neutrality in 2050. The European Commission is due to propose new regulations on Wednesday to achieve this.

According to several sources, it would consider the complete elimination of automotive emissions from 2035.

Battery-powered electric vehicles being the only ones to meet this requirement, they will de facto become the only ones authorized on the new market.

Europe imposed an average cap of 95 grams of CO2 per kilometer on car manufacturers in 2020, which was to be lowered by 37.5% in 2030.

Finally, the reduction could reach 60% in 2030, then 100% in 2035. These figures, still under discussion, would represent an immense constraint for an industry which will also have to rely by 2027 on the tightening of the pollution standards imposed on thermal engines. .

- Electricity boom -

In a globally declining market due to the coronavirus pandemic, electric cars are making strong progress.

They represented nearly 8% of registrations in Western Europe over the first five months of the year, or 356,000 vehicles, "more than for the whole of 2019", according to German analyst Matthias Schmidt .

The new regulations will favor these vehicles even more and will push to abandon hybrids and plug-in hybrids, which combine gasoline engine and battery.

Something to worry about the industry which employs 14.6 million workers in the EU and which still relies heavily on this "transition technology".

If Brussels is introducing accompanying measures, in particular to develop charging stations, "we are open to additional CO2 reductions in 2030", recently said Oliver Zipse, president of the European Association of Manufacturers (ACEA).

The lobby, which has long fought to slow down the transition, is deeply divided.

The majority of its members stress that too rapid electrification would increase the price of vehicles, destroy jobs and promote competition from China, ahead of batteries.

- Volkswagen already ready -

But the European leader Volkswagen, which represents one in four sales in Europe, has joined the American Tesla in promoting 100% electric, after causing a scandal in 2015 by admitting the rigging of its diesel engines.

"There is a huge conflict within ACEA. Because of Dieselgate, Volkswagen has been pushed towards electric to improve its image. The group has made huge investments and now it has the products to meet the future. legislation ", explains Matthias Schmidt.

"Volkswagen is in a perfect position to gain market share and send some competitors to the wall."

In June, the brand announced that it would stop selling combustion engines in Europe between 2033 and 2035.

"A car generally stays on the road for fifteen years. If we want to have completely carbon-free transport in 2050, the last thermal car must be sold in 2035 at the latest," said Diane Strauss, head of the NGO Transport and Environment for France.

In a ranking published in June, the NGO pinned Daimler (Mercedes), BMW, Stellantis (PSA, Fiat) and Toyota, whose projects it considers "unambitious" because it gives pride of place to plug-in hybrids deemed polluting.

Renault and Hyundai are well ranked, although behind Volkswagen and Volvo.

The end of heat engines in "2035 is the right compromise between 2030, which is too early on the industrial and social level, and 2040, which is too late on the climatic level", estimates Pascal Canfin, chairman of the committee. Environment in the European Parliament.

However, he pleads for the creation of a fund of "a few billion euros" to support the hundreds of SMEs in sectors threatened by technological change.

© 2021 AFP