MEPs meeting in Strasbourg in plenary session on June 8, 2022 voted in favor of a 100% reduction in CO emissionstwo for new vehicles sold in the European Union from 2035. However, this measure still must be approved by the governments of each of the member states so that it can take effect. This step, which should mean the final sentence for combustion enginescan be stopped in the 27 parliaments of the member countries and the German seems to be the first to not accept this measure.
With the approval of this law, Europe tries to banish thermal technologies, including hybrid ones, from the market and favor 100% electric ones, which are currently the only ones sufficiently developed to meet the criteria and deadlines set by this law. The fight against emissions in transport materializes in this way, a proposal previously promoted by the European Union Environment Commission. What this vote does is corroborate a reality that the majority of manufacturers had already internalized and definitively implement a regulation that they had already internalized.
Even though the feeling is that there is a total agreement to materialize this medFirst, the obstacle may be in the Parliaments of each country, which must materialize the measure. The first that could disagree is the German, since his government does not seem to be very happy with the measure. At least that is what the finance minister has warned. Christian Lindner at an event organized by the industry association BDI last Tuesday.
Lindner said that there would still be niches for combustion engines, and that the government he belongs to would not agree to this European legislation. This minister is part of the German government as a representative of the Liberal party that shares power with the Social Democrats and the Greens. Despite these statements he said that Germany would remain a leading market for electric vehicles.
Previously, Germany and France have been the two countries that have most questioned this measure. The heads of their governments have reiterated with their declarations that the goal will have a negative impact on the automobile industry since it is too ambitious and costly.
On the contrary, in the case of Germany, Mercedes-Benz and the Volkswagen Group, two of its most important manufacturers, have been maintaining that the plan is achievable in the time frame. Volkswagen has been the first to react, expressing its support for the new legislation, adding that it is ambitious, and that the change that the industry is undergoing towards electric mobility is “irreversible” and that “it is the only ecologically, technologically and economically sensible way to replace combustion engines as soon as possible”, according to Automotive News Europe.
Mercedes-Benz has stated on multiple occasions that by 2030 the brand will be ready to go fully electric “wherever market conditions allow.” According to Eckart von Klaeden, head of external relations at Mercedes, “the decision places the responsibility on political leaders to guarantee the necessary infrastructure.”
