The Government bans diesel and petrol cars from 2040

This Thursday the country’s first Climate Change and Energy Transition Law was approved in the Congress of Deputies. With this regulation, Spain seeks to comply with the global pact to curb global warming that it signed five years ago in the Paris Agreement.

The importance of this law is key, as it will bring about a huge change affecting all of Spanish society, since from 2040 vehicle manufacturers will only be able to sell cars that are one hundred percent electrified.

And you may be wondering, what will happen to hybrids or plug-in hybrids? The answer is the same as for a diesel, petrol or gas car. In short, any car whose propulsion is not fully electric will be banned from sale.

This change is not the only one that will affect all Spaniards; from 2050, the circulation of all vehicles with a combustion engine will also be prohibited, except for classic vehicles – those over thirty years old.

The aim of this law is to achieve a reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases by 20% by 2030, compared with 1990 levels, and to reach climate neutrality in the European Union by 2050.

A great challenge not only for citizens

Car manufacturers will be another of the main groups affected by this law, as they will have to convert their entire vehicle range to electrification. Many brands already have this in place and aim to carry it out, as is the case of Toyota, one of the manufacturers at the forefront of sustainable mobility.

To get an idea of how big a change this could mean, in 2020 more than 850,000 cars were sold and only 17,925 were fully electric. So, if we do the math, only 2.11% of all vehicles sold over the whole year represents the share of electrified vehicles. If you want to know more data about our country’s vehicle fleet, here we tell you.

The Climate Change and Energy Transition Law will also oblige service stations such as petrol stations to install charging points in all their facilities with a power of at least 50 kW, depending on their level of demand or sales.

But this does not end here

Also, with 2023 as the deadline, cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, or more than 20,000 and already experiencing air quality problems, must have low-emission zones, as was the case in the city of Madrid, which had Madrid Central, which was abolished this very week.

In short, both the car park and the car market we know will change radically over the coming years. Measures like these will be a great challenge for all manufacturers that fail to adapt to the situation, and for citizens who are forced to replace their old cars with electric cars, since let us remember that the average age of the Spanish car fleet is 13.2 years.