Automotive: under pressure from Berlin, the EU relaxes the ban on combustion engines

Europe 1 with AFP 16:19 pm, March 25, 2023

The European Commission and Germany announced on Saturday that they had reached an agreement to unlock a key text of the European Union's climate plan on CO2 emissions from cars, by relaxing the ban on combustion engines after 2035. Berlin stunned its European partners at the beginning of March by blocking at the last moment a regulation providing for the reduction of CO2 emissions from new vehicles to zero, effectively imposing 100% electric engines from the middle of the next decade. This text had already been the subject of an agreement in October between member states and negotiators of the European Parliament, with the green light from Germany, and was approved in mid-February by MEPs meeting in plenary.

>> READ ALSO - End of combustion engines in 2035: after the German veto, what consequences for the automotive industry?

From vehicles to synthetic fuels

To justify its about-face, which is extremely rare at this stage of the procedure, Germany had asked the Commission to present a proposal paving the way for vehicles running on synthetic fuels. This technology, still under development, would consist of producing fuel from CO2 from industrial activities. Defended by high-end German and Italian manufacturers, it would extend the use of combustion engines after 2035.

In recent weeks, the Commission has been negotiating the terms of a way out of the crisis with Berlin, which called for a firmer commitment on synthetic fuels, certainly already mentioned in the initial text but in a recital deemed too legally inbinding. "We have reached an agreement with Germany on the future use of synthetic fuels," EU Environment Commissioner Frans Timmermans said on Twitter on Saturday. The Swedish presidency of the Council of the EU immediately indicated that the regulation on CO2 emissions from cars would be submitted to the ambassadors of the 27 member countries on Monday in Brussels so that the legislation could be finally adopted at a meeting of energy ministers on Tuesday.

Technology challenged by environmental NGOs

"Vehicles with a combustion engine will be able to be registered after 2035 if they exclusively use CO2-neutral fuels," said German Transport Minister Volker Wissing. However, synthetic fuel technology is contested by environmental NGOs as expensive, energy-intensive and polluting. "Big anger! The Commission is therefore bowing down to Germany!" protested Green MEP Karima Delli, calling on the European Parliament to prevent the green light for synthetic fuels.

The Berlin blockade was an initiative of the liberals of the FDP, the third party in the ruling coalition behind the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens. This small party, credited with around 5% of voting intentions in national polls, has lost five consecutive regional elections. He hopes to assert himself by posing as a defender of the automobile, betting on the hostility of a large part of the population to the ban on combustion engines. To ensure the unity of his coalition Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz preferred to align himself with this demand and the Greens let it happen.

>> READ ALSO - Is the electric car really less polluting than the thermal car?

"The text is unchanged"

Finally, "the text is unchanged. The rule of 100% zero-emission cars in 2035 is therefore maintained," responded the president of the Environment Committee of the European Parliament Pascal Canfin (Renew, Liberals), ensuring that he would be vigilant on the respect of the "climate neutrality" of the combustion engines that will be authorized. The industry has already invested heavily in electric vehicles. Even if they prove their worth, synthetic fuels, which do not exist today, "will not play an important role in the medium term in the passenger car segment," said Markus Duesmann, boss of Audi (Volkswagen Group). Because of their cost, they will only make sense for a few luxury cars "like Porsche 911s or Ferraris," said Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, an expert at the Center Automotive Research in Germany, who sees "no significant change" for the green transition.

But, according to him, the mismanagement of the file by "the European Commission has fed new doubts" in public opinion and has created "uncertainties for investment". "It's bad for the European car industry, because the Chinese and the Americans will widen the gap in electric vehicles," he said. The affair has also affected Germany's image in Brussels and damaged the credibility of the institutions, many observers believe. "A member state threatens to provoke a constitutional crisis of the EU (non-compliance with the result of a legislative procedure) and gets nothing substantial in return, a real disaster," said German Social Democrat MEP René Repasi.