Germany has formed an alliance with Italy, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia to stop the European Union’s plans to ban the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines from 2035. These countries seek to exclude from the standard those vehicles that run on synthetic fuels.
According to the German Transport Minister, Volker WissingItaly, Poland and the Czech Republic share their skepticism regarding the European plans. “The proposal needs urgent changes. Banning the combustion engine, when it can run in a climate-neutral way, seems like the wrong approach to us.”
The movement carried out by Germany has been heavily criticized in Brusselssince his change of position has been made at the last minute and without prior notice. “We don’t want to stop things, nor do we want them to fail. We want regulation to succeed, we need climate neutrality, but we have to remain open to [distintas] technologies, anything else is not a good option for Europe’.
martin kupkaCzech Transport Minister, believes that the European Commission will present a binding proposal on e-fuels in the coming weeks to unblock the situation. “A solution for the exemption of synthetic fuels should be found in the next few days or two weeks.”
Spain and France, against Germany and Italy
E-fuels, synthesized from green hydrogen and recaptured carbon dioxide, are a climate neutral technology; however, many experts agree that they will not be competitive from an economic point of view due to the huge energy expenditure involved in its production. Furthermore, they do not solve the problem of NOx and particulate emissions in cities.
Both Spain and France have come out against the position adopted by Germany and Italy. Bruno Le MaireFrench Minister of the Economy, has gone so far as to affirm that “Allowing new thermal cars with synthetic fuel from 2035 would be an environmental offense.”
Teresa RiberaThird Vice President and Minister of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge of Spain, has described the behavior of Germany as disappointing. “What happens if other governments decide to do something similar with any other issue? The rules are for everyone.” Ribera attributes this situation to the internal conflicts of the coalition led by Olaf Scholz. “They may have an internal political difficulty, but now they have exported that difficulty to the whole of the European Union.”
Source | Automotive News Europe
