Europe gets out.

What was indicated by a decision by the European Parliament in June has been official since last Thursday evening.

By 2035, the CO2 emissions of new cars and delivery vans are to drop to zero.

What is meant is the emission that is measured at the exhaust pipe.

This means that new vehicles with internal combustion engines may no longer be registered in the Member States.

John Winterhagen

Editor in the economy, technology and engine department

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The agreement reached in a complicated legislative procedure provides for exceptions for cars that can only be refueled with fuel produced in a climate-neutral manner.

However, this is merely a "reason for consideration" that does not constitute a legal obligation.

The German automotive industry's farewell to the internal combustion engine should now accelerate further.

Anyone who is interested in buying a new car will already feel this development.

The range of models with petrol or diesel engines is shrinking continuously.

Luxury brands like Mercedes-Benz want to stop selling combustion cars by 2030.

From 2034 onwards, no more Volkswagens will be brought onto the market in the actual or figurative sense – in Europe.

This is important because the European market is shrinking while global demand for passenger cars is likely to increase.

In return, the range of battery-electric vehicles will grow in Germany, with manufacturers outdoing each other with announced model offensives.

Only affordable small cars are the exception and will probably remain so.

Because contrary to what has been predicted in numerous studies, the costs for battery cells are increasing instead of decreasing.

This is due to the higher prices for important raw materials.

Cobalt is often used as an example, but this is reduced anyway by new battery technology or, with certain losses in performance, even completely substituted.

Lithium, which is becoming more expensive due to rapidly increasing demand and only slowly growing production, is more problematic in the long term.

Neither technological developments nor raw material prices can be precisely predicted for twelve years, but the majority of all studies agree that individual, non-state-subsidised mobility will become more expensive.

Only the body is new

Technically, the cars sold in Europe will become more and more similar, at least as far as mechanics and electronics are concerned.

Because the now common design of an electric car with a large battery in the underbody and one to two driven axles promotes a platform design.

A manufacturer earns a lot of money when it can offer as many vehicles as possible on a standard platform and possibly even make them available to competitors.

In the future, Volkswagen will also supply Ford with the modular drive system.

Only the body is new in each case, in the car industry they talk about the hat.

And of course the software, which, like that of a smartphone, is updated on a monthly basis.

The sale of cars and vans with fuel cells would also be permitted from 2035.

If the is operated with hydrogen, there are also no carbon dioxide emissions.

Whether such vehicles will really be at the dealership is uncertain.

Currently, the manufacturing costs are significantly higher than those for electric drives.

Added to this is the poor dynamic behavior of the small electrochemical factory, which means that a battery must always be on board in order to be able to accelerate properly.

Such a fuel cell hybrid has better chances in places where long loading times and therefore downtimes are unacceptable, for example in heavy trucks.