The European Union is open to the possible continuation of combustion engines beyond 2035

European Commissioner for Transport Apostolos Tzitzikostas has just made statements that are generating many headlines, claiming that the European Union is prepared to revise the strict CO2 emissions targets for passenger cars that had initially been set. This would allow vehicles with combustion engines to remain on sale beyond 2035.

Tzitzikostas has assured that Brussels is open to all technologies available in the automotive sector, and this will be reflected in the future regulation incorporating all technological advances available at that time. In principle, this includes not only plug-in hybrids and vehicles with range extenders, but also highly efficient conventional combustion engines.

What exactly does this mean?

To leave no room for doubt, Tzitzikostas has clarified that the continued existence of combustion engines will be conditional on the exclusive use of neutral or very low-emission fuels, such as advanced biofuels or synthetic fuels (e-fuels). Likewise, some Commission sources have confirmed that traditional engines will only receive the green light if they run solely and exclusively on these clean fuels.

The viability of this new position of the European authorities remains to be seen, however. The European automotive sector could face a scenario in which it would be obliged to make heavy investments to develop new combustion engines fully compatible with these new fuels, which could then prove unattractive to customers due to the difficulty of finding service stations with the required fuel, or, if it is available, its price per litre may be excessively high and not profitable.

In short, the continuation of combustion engines beyond 2035 does not mean that everything will carry on as it has until now. The apparent loosening by the Commission keeps the climate targets intact and only opens the door to the use of synthetic fuels.

A decision, however, that would be very well received by manufacturers of high-performance supercars, such as Lamborghini or Ferrari, which had already requested this possibility, allowing them to keep offering the vehicles that many of their customers demand. Customers, moreover, for whom the price per litre of these synthetic fuels is something absolutely irrelevant, however high it may be.