The Federal Government and the EU Commission reached an agreement late in the evening yesterday.
Federal Minister Dr. Volker Wissing commented on the compromise:
“In very detailed and constructive negotiations, we managed to ensure the element of technology neutrality within the framework of the regulation of fleet limits.
This paves the way for vehicles with combustion engines that only use CO2-neutral fuels to be newly registered after 2035. This also implemented an important point from the coalition agreement.
Concrete procedural steps and a concrete schedule were fixed in a binding manner. In a first step, an e-fuels-only vehicle category is to be created and then integrated into the fleet limit regulation. We want the process to be completed by autumn 2024.
I would like to thank everyone involved for the recent good and goal-oriented discussions. It was always a question of making the trilogue process more concrete, namely the issue of openness to technology, which is so important for the entire European Union. In doing so, we are opening up important options for the population towards climate-neutral and affordable mobility.”
Source – BMDV – Translated by Google Translate
Steffi Lemke on the agreement on e-fuels and CO2 fleet limits
Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke: “It is good that this impasse is over. Anything else would have severely damaged both confidence in European procedures and in Germany’s reliability in European politics. I would like to expressly thank our European partners and the EU Commission for their prudent conduct. The solution that has now been found takes account of the concerns of the FDP without jeopardizing the compromise found in the trialogue proceedings. The automotive industry now has clarity for the transition to electromobility. We have always said that e-fuels will play an important role. Especially for those areas that cannot easily switch to efficient electric motors.”
Source – BMUV – Translated by Google Translate
T&E reaction to EU and Germany deal on 2035 zero-emissions cars law
Europe needs to move forward and give clarity to its automotive industry
25 March 2023
The European Commission and the German government today reached an agreement that will allow the 2035 zero-emissions deadline for cars to enter law, according to reports. The Commission agreed to make a proposal, allowing cars running only on climate neutral fuels – e-fuels provided they are made with clean energy – to be registered within the Euro 6 vehicle type approval rules.
Under the deal, the Commission will first designate a new vehicle category for cars running exclusively on e-fuels, then present a delegated act allowing these vehicles to count towards the EU car CO2 targets. They also agreed that the Commission would present a statement setting out the legislative approach that will allow e-fuel-only cars to be registered after 2035.
Julia Poliscanova, senior director for vehicles and emobility at Transport & Environment said: “Europe needs to move forward and give clarity to its automotive industry which is in a race with the US and China. E-fuels are an expensive and massively inefficient diversion from the transformation to electric facing Europe’s carmakers. For the sake of Europe’s climate credibility, the 2035 zero-emissions cars deal needs to enter law without any further delay.”