the European Parliament approves the end of combustion engines in 2035

A step forward in the fight against global warming. The European Parliament approved, in a final vote on Tuesday February 14 in Strasbourg, the draft regulation ending the sale of new thermal engine vehicles in 2035. The text, adopted by 340 votes for, 279 votes against, and 21 abstentions , plans to reduce CO2 emissions from new cars and vans in Europe to zero from 2035. “We have reached a historic agreement, which reconciles the automobile and the climate, two enemy brothers”rejoiced the ecologist MEP Karima Delli, president of the Transport Committee.

This amounts to the de facto cessation of sales of new petrol and diesel cars and light commercial vehicles in the EU on this date, as well as hybrids (petrol-electric), in favor of 100% electric vehicles. This regulation, proposed by the European Commission in July 2021, will still need to be formally approved by the European Council for it to enter into force.

Exemption for luxury cars

While the car, the main mode of transport for Europeans, represents just under 15% of total CO2 emissions in the EU, the new regulations must contribute to achieving the continent’s climate objectives, in particular carbon neutrality in the EU. horizon 2050. This is the first agreement on a text of the European climate package (“Fit for 55”) intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 of the EU.

The text also confirms intermediate objectives, by 2030, of reducing CO2 emissions by -55% for new cars and -50% for new vans, compared to 2021. An exemption is granted to “niche” manufacturers or those producing less than 10,000 vehicles per year, allowing them to be equipped with a combustion engine until the end of 2035, ie one year more than for the rest of the industry. This clause, called the “Ferrari amendment”, will particularly benefit luxury brands.