EU agrees on effective ban of new fossil fuel cars from 2035
28 October 2022
The European Council and the Parliament reached a provisional political agreement on stricter CO2 emission performance standards for new cars and vans.
A 100% CO2 emission reduction target for new cars and vans is to become effective from 2035, representing an actual ban on the sales of gasoline and diesel vehicles.
The agreement also includes a 55% CO2 emission reduction target for new cars and 50% for new vans from 2030 compared to 2021 levels, much higher than the existing target of a 37.5% reduction by then.
The agreement includes wording on CO2 neutral fuels, whereby the European Commission will make a proposal for registering vehicles running exclusively on CO2-neutral fuels after 2035.
The agreement also includes a number of other provisions, including:
- A reduction of the cap of emission credits that manufacturers can receive for eco-innovations that verifiably reduce CO2 emissions on the road, to up to 4 g/km per year from 2030 until 2034 (currently set at 7 g/km per year).
- The regulatory incentive mechanism for zero- and low-emission vehicles (ZLEV) will be kept until 2030. As part this mechanism, if a manufacturer meets certain benchmarks for the sales of zero- and low-emission vehicles it can be rewarded with less strict CO2 targets. The co-legislators agreed to increase the benchmark to 25% for cars and 17% for vans until 2030.
- A review clause will ensure that in 2026, the Commission assess the progress made towards achieving the 100% emission reduction targets and the need to review these targets taking into account technological developments.
- The Commission will develop a common EU methodology, by 2025, for assessing the full life cycle of CO2 emissions of cars and vans placed on the EU market, as well as for the fuels and energy consumed by these vehicles. Based on this methodology, manufacturers may, on a voluntary basis, report to the Commission on the life cycle emissions of the new vehicles they place on the market.
- The agreement maintains a derogation for small volume manufacturers until the end of 2035.
The proposal revises existing rules, last amended in 2019. The text of the provisional political agreement will be made available soon, the European Council said in a press release. The provisional political agreement reached in trilogue negotiations will now have to be formally adopted by the Council and the Parliament.
Source: European Council