Italy, German Officials Lean against EU Target on Combustion Engines

European Union (EU)Germany Hungary Italy Opinions Poland Policy Sustainability

March 02, 2023

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(SursaZilei.RO) Germany and Italy threatened to block an European Union plan that would have effectively banned new combustion-engine vehicles after 2035 unless the bloc’s executive comes up with a promised proposal to exempt cars that use climate-neutral synthetic fuels, according to Bloomberg.

Poland and Hungary have also signaled their opposition, potentially jeopardizing the EU’s green goals and an overall target of achieving climate neutrality by 2050. The plan requires carmakers to reach a zero-emissions target by 2035 and was provisionally agreed on by member states last year.

Germany successfully lobbied for a loophole in the rules, under which the European Commission agreed to make a proposal for registering vehicles running exclusively on CO2-neutral fuel after 2035.

German Transport Minister Volker Wissing said Wednesday that the Commission had failed to deliver the proposal, so the government in Berlin is unable to give its approval for the wider plan in a final vote by EU government ministers due March 7.

Overruling a deal made between lawmakers and member states at this late stage would likely be politically toxic, with the vote next week normally seen as a rubber stamp. A preliminary vote by EU officials on the issue due Wednesday was postponed to Friday.

“We need e-fuels as there is no alternative if we want to operate our vehicle fleet in a climate-neutral way,” Wissing said in an interview with public broadcaster ARD.

“Whoever is serious about climate-neutral mobility must keep all technological options open and also use them,” he added. “I don’t understand this fight against the car and why people want to ban some technologies.”

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While sales of electric cars are taking off, concerns over patchy charging times and comparatively high costs of an EV haven’t dissipated with Stellantis NV Chief Executive Officer Carlos Tavares warning of deep upheaval if consumers no longer have access to affordable vehicles. EVs are also less complex to make, triggering job cuts.

Concerns about the EU’s push have surfaced elsewhere too with Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton in November urging manufacturers to keep making combustion cars that help create quality jobs and drive exports.

Italy’s right-wing government led by Giorgia Meloni has long been critical of the plans to ban new combustion-engine cars. Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini said that such a plan “makes no sense” and puts thousands of jobs at risk.

“The use of clean fuels compatible with combustion engines will allow the continuation of a green transition without economic impact on citizens,” according to a statement Tuesday from the environment ministry in Rome. READ MORE

2nd Gear: Germany and Italy Aren’t Ready (Jalopnik)

Italy to vote against EU plan to ban thermal engine cars (Reuters)

Germany, Italy Signal They Could Block EU Combustion-Engine Ban: Opposition to a major plank of the bloc’s climate plans comes as the move to EVs threatens jobs in Europe (Wall Street Journal)

Germany threatens to hold up EU’s combustion-engine car ban (Associated Press)

German synthetic fuels row threatens planned EU combustion engine ban (Reuters)

Italy to vote against EU plan to ban thermal engine cars (Reuters)

Germany, Italy protest strict EU plan for combustion-engine ban: Overruling the proposed ban already agreed between lawmakers and member states would likely be politically toxic. (Automotive News Europe)

Germany And Italy Might Block Europe’s 2035 ICE Ban: Countries want exemption for combustion cars using synthetic fuels which they say are carbon-neutral (Car Scoops)

Germany’s Scholz refuses to back down in car engine standoff with Brussels (Politico)

France-Germany feud heats up over cars and nuclear: Rift risks spilling over into EU leaders’ summit in Brussels this week. (Politico)

EU Set to Propose Rules to Allow Germany E-Fuels for Cars: Germany wants use of internal combustion engines beyond 2035; E-fuels are made using captured carbon and renewable power (Bloomberg)

Excerpt from Associated Press: Some countries, such as Germany, had asked the EU’s executive Commission to come up with an exemption for cars that burn so-called e-fuels, arguing that they can be produced using renewable energy and carbon captured from the air, so they wouldn’t spew further climate-changing emissions into the atmosphere.

German Transport Minister Volker Wissing said the Commission hadn’t made a proposal, so Germany would refrain from supporting the ban.

Wissing said synthetic fuels need to be produced in large amounts as soon as possible to meet the demand from cars sold before 2035, as well as from heavy goods vehicles, ships and planes.

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Germany’s main opposition party, the center-right Union bloc, also opposed an EU-wide ban on combustion engine vehicles, warning that it would harm the country’s prized auto industry. READ MORE

Excerpt from Reuters: "Tomorrow in Brussels, at the meeting of ambassadors of EU countries, Italy will express a position against the proposed European regulation banning the production and sale of cars and vans with internal combustion engines by 2035," the minister said in a statement.

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"Italy believes that the choice of electric should not be the only way to achieve zero emissions in the transition phase," Pichetto Fratin added in the statement. READ MORE

Excerpt from Automotive News Europe: Poland and Hungary have also signaled their opposition to the plan.

The EU’s combustion-engine ban is already far along in the bloc’s internal deliberations, and overruling a deal made between lawmakers and member states at this late stage would be unlikely as politically toxic, with a vote next week normally seen as a rubber stamp. A preliminary deliberation by EU officials on the issue due Wednesday was postponed to Friday

Germany is pushing for reassurances from the European Commission that it will come up with a proposal on how e-fuels can be used in new combustion engine cars after 2035. It’s not clear when it would like such a proposal — likely to be technical — given the narrow timeline for a deal before EU elections next year.

But an assurance from the commission, such as a statement or declaration, could be enough to stop Germany from abstaining.

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Germany successfully lobbied for a loophole in the rules, under which the commission agreed to make a proposal for registering vehicles running exclusively on CO2-neutral fuel after 2035.

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Concerns about the EU's push have surfaced elsewhere too with Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton in November urging manufacturers to keep making combustion cars that help create quality jobs and drive exports.

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Germany’s biggest industry lobby group BDI, which represents manufacturers of everything from autos to textiles, said it welcomes the transport minister’s initiative and rejects a “de facto end for the combustion engine.”

“It is important to consider electricity-based fuels for new registrations of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles in the CO2 fleet regulation,” the BDI said.

The transition to EVs is already having a social cost in Italy. Stellantis announced 2,000 job cuts in Italy on Monday, or about 4.3 percent of its 47,000 workers in the country where Fiat was founded in 1899. The automaker has cut over 7,000 workers in the country in the last three years, according to the Fiom union.

Ford will dismiss about 11 percent of its workforce in Europe as the U.S. automaker cuts costs in the latest sign of industrial disruption caused by the automotive sector’s shift to EVs.

Of the total 3,800 jobs to go, workers in Germany and the UK will be hardest hit with about 2,300 and 1,300 positions to be eliminated respectively over the next three years, Ford said last month. READ MORE

Excerpt from Politico: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday made clear that he's fully behind the effort to press the European Commission to amend its effort to ban the sale of new polluting combustion engine vehicles from 2035 by creating a loophole for so-called e-fuels.

Pushed by the Free Democratic Party, a junior member of Germany's three-party coalition, Berlin is balking at approving the 2035 deal despite it already being agreed by member countries and the European Parliament. Germany is joined by Italy, Poland and Bulgaria, and the opposition prompted the Swedish Council presidency to postpone a vote by EU ministers that had been scheduled for Tuesday.

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What the FDP's sportscar-loving leader Christian Lindner wants is a late change to EU rules to allow the use of e-fuels, made from captured CO2 which can be used as an expensive replacement for fossil fuels. As currently written, the EU's rule would ban tailpipe emissions from 2035, effectively excluding e-fuels, which do emit CO2. That would force automakers to switch to either electric of hydrogen models, causing potential problems for countries with big car industries.

Berlin wants the Commission to first put forward a proposal for e-fuels before it agrees to stop blocking the final approval of the 2035 rules. READ MORE