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Transportation EU

EU Moves To Ease 2035 Ban On Internal Combustion Cars (apnews.com) 152

The EU is moving to soften its planned 2035 ban on internal combustion cars by allowing a small share of low-emission engines. "The less stringent limit would leave room for automakers to continue selling some plug-in hybrids, which have both electric and internal combustion engines and can use the combustion engine to recharge the battery without the need to find a charging station," reports the Associated Press. From the report: The proposal from the EU's executive commission would change provisions of 2023 legislation requiring average emissions in new cars to equal zero, or a 100% reduction from 2021 levels. The new proposal would require a 90% emissions reduction. That means in practical terms that most cars would be battery-only but would leave room for some cars with internal combustion engines.

Automakers would have to compensate for the added emissions by using European steel produced by methods that emit less carbon, and through use of climate neutral e-fuels made from renewable electricity and captured carbon dioxide and biofuels made from plants. EU officials say changing the limit will not affect progress toward making the 27-country bloc's economy climate neutral by 2050. That means producing only as much carbon dioxide as can be absorbed by forests and oceans or by abatement methods such as storing it underground. CO2 is the primary greenhouse gas blamed by scientists for climate change.

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EU Moves To Ease 2035 Ban On Internal Combustion Cars

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  • by Firethorn ( 177587 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2025 @09:47PM (#65863117) Homepage Journal

    I've said before that the upcoming bans were more aspirational than effective, placed far enough in the future that when things didn't go as rosy as predicted (which itself should be predictable), that they'd modify them.
    Examples include:
    1. Expanding the qualifying vehicles, like including HEVs in the same category as EVs
    2. Pushing deadlines back
    3. Lowering percentages.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      The way it works is that there are limits on fleet emissions. A certain proportion of cars sold must be zero emission, and the fossil ones must have average emissions below a certain level.

      Even with this change, the great majority of cars sold will have to be EVs.

    • We really still haven't had that major battery tech breakthrough that allows for $25,000 EV's with over 300 miles of range that can meet EU crash and safety standards... yet. I'd imagine that China is closer to the goal than most, though.

      Until then, we really don't have mass market alternative that makes all ICE vehicles obsolete for lower income nations.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by djgl ( 6202552 )

        We don't need 300 miles of range in the EU. My country has 101201 public charging stations on its 138065 square miles and I guess most people with cars drive less than 20 miles per day.

        • .. And Europeans have so much free time they have nothing better to do than sit around charging their cars?
          • by short ( 66530 )
            With Tesla Model 3 LR/P (82 kWh) you charge only about 50% on freeways (10%->60% approx). The newer 800V cars charge faster so they can have even a bit smaller battery.
            • And when that 50% runs out, then what?
              • by short ( 66530 )
                Before leaving the charger, you can see your next charging stop and the expected arrival SoC (state of charge). Only an idiot would leave a charger without having enough battery. You can also choose to charge more and skip the next charger - for example, if youâ(TM)re stopping for lunch.
          • We do. 25-30 days of paid vacation, sick leave for as long as necessary, not too much overtime.

            • That would go a long way towards being able to use an EV.
        • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

          And due to time it takes to charge, the moment there's any increased traffic on those, you're waiting hours to start your charging.

          We're not even going to mention the scourge of electric charging, "this charger is currently not available, please use another".

          Something you'd know if you had to charge an EV without having home charging.

      • I bought a Chevy Equinox EV for $27,649 out the door in August. With 319 miles of range. Including the now defunct $7500 EV tax credit.

        I believe it would likely pass European crash tests.

        However, I think Chinese EVs likely cost a lot less than $25k, even with 300 miles of range.

        • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

          It would not. European standards are to maximize low speed impact pedestrian safety, US are to maximize high speed impact vehicle occupant safety.

          These are often mutually exclusive. For example we are mandated to have really soft vehicle bonnets that crumple on impact with human skull. Such bonnets offer little to no protection to vehicle occupants in a high speed frontal impact.

          US cars tend to have thick steel bonnets with crumple zones, designed to absorb energy in a frontal impact. These will have a much

      • by Zarhan ( 415465 )

        Cupra Raval / ID.Polo / Skoda Epiq sounds pretty much like one. I'm lined up to buy one next year, unless they have screwed up really badly somehow.

    • The EU and Nato countries are gearing up their military for possible future conflicts and having to rely on not portable electric power sources to power military vehicles, trucks and cars is a military disadvantage.

      A tanker truck of gasoline can be delivered nearly anywhere and well beyond any place with substantial electrical grid connections (plus when the grid is destroyed...).

      That is for any military vehicle and not just heavy trucks, tanks and troop carriers.

      • No military of consequence is going to shift to purely electric vehicles any time soon because of refueling times alone, but in number of roles an EV has an advantage because it's quiet and reliable. If you can deliver a tanker truck, then you can deliver a generator.

    • On the other hand:

      [...]and through use of climate neutral e-fuels made from renewable electricity and captured carbon dioxide and biofuels made from plants.

      If this can be ramped up rapidly, it will be just as good as electric vehicles. Electricity in Europe is still about 30% fossil fuel generated.

    • Also it would be kind of ironic if we got to buy nicer BMWs and Benzes here in North America than they are allowed to sell in the EU.
    • 4. The fucking new car price.

      Just in case we forgot why new car sales are sucking hind tit, with lots FULL of unsold inventory at COVID prices. My local Ford dealer is so overstocked they turned the dealership inbound road into a one-way street. Because they had new cars lining the road on both sides.

      Don’t even get me started on EV depreciation that makes a Maserati look like a 20-year old gold investment. Say it with me kids. Negative Equity. You’ll be hearing that a lot after the 84-mont

    • Bans are just paperwork posturing and only serve to rile up anti-EV folks. The real work is building out battery production and developing advanced battery chemistries. Everything else is relatively easy.
      • Bans are just paperwork posturing and only serve to rile up anti-EV folks. The real work is building out battery production and developing advanced battery chemistries. Everything else is relatively easy.

        How relatively easy will it be for citizens to afford that $80K EV?

        Can’t sell them for shit today without government subsidies. Manufacturers seriously struggle to make them at even a minor profit. Battery replacement costs are mind-numbing, and will be a real problem after that eighty-four month loan is paid off, and you need another 48-month loan for the new battery. Especially buying used EVs, where crushing depreciation finally enables Joe Sixpack to afford one.

        Someone is going to pay for all t

    • by mjwx ( 966435 )

      I've said before that the upcoming bans were more aspirational than effective, placed far enough in the future that when things didn't go as rosy as predicted (which itself should be predictable), that they'd modify them.
      Examples include:
      1. Expanding the qualifying vehicles, like including HEVs in the same category as EVs
      2. Pushing deadlines back
      3. Lowering percentages.

      You're not exactly nostradamus here.

      This is exactly how politics work.

      1. Make attention grabbing policy.
      2. Bask in attention.
      3. Slowly roll it back to what the policy should have been but would have grabbed fewer headlines.

      This is not something that is exclusive to the EU but they are experts at doing it. This is why you should never fly off the handle at a mere policy announcement, not that logic and reason will dissuade the frothing hordes one iota. Anyone with an ounce of understanding of the

  • by SvnLyrBrto ( 62138 ) on Tuesday December 16, 2025 @09:57PM (#65863133)

    Don't worry. By 2035, Dear Leader will have abolished all of those "WOKE" hybrids and the smaller "LEFTIST" economical petrol cars. We'll be cruising around on land yachts... the BEST land yachts... better than SAD little cars the shithole countries of the world use. And they'll be powered by beautiful CLEAN COAL; with our very own black gangs shoveling it into the REAL GOOD fireboxes that CROOKED HILLARY banned for NO REASON except that she's a NASTY woman who full of HATE and she wants to spite the REAL Americans.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Energy subsidies preclude a free market solution, though. I'm not even saying they're a bad thing, keeping energy affordable for the citizenry at large is at least as useful as carrier groups, but how we prop up which sectors to get the best long term benefit isn't always as simple as just letting the market fight it out when it comes to new tech.
      • Some countries are using a zero-sum mechanism where subsidies the EV are taken from a fund replenished by a new sales tax on the most polluting ICEs.

      • by Dixie_Flatline ( 5077 ) <vincent,jan,goh&gmail,com> on Wednesday December 17, 2025 @02:49AM (#65863423) Homepage

        Sure, just as soon as the taxpayers stop subsidizing petroleum companies. I'm okay with that solution. Let's see what the market decides when the government isn't gifting free land in protected wildlife areas and cleaning up abandoned wells and waging wars to protect oil interests in the middle east. Let's go.

      • by short ( 66530 )
        That's a great idea as long as gas cars stick their tailpipe into their cabin.
      • The market is so good at deciding that it gave us global warming, the ozone layer hole, dirty air, dirty water, a mental health crisis, a crazy over-communicating society and people needing three jobs to make ends meet. Thank you market forces!

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Didn't Trump just praise Japan's kei cars?

    • Trump will be making the announcement on Wednesday that by 2035, walking will be totally banned in America. Only cars and mobility scooters are allowed.

    • DEI is the great satan now.

      We're getting closer to the truth though, DEI is just a few steps from admitting that the reason they really don't like them is because they're not white and not male.
  • Putting pressure only on the automakers was a bad idea. Force every parking lot to have chargers, and every fuel station to have fast chargers, problem solved.

    • Putting pressure only on the automakers was a bad idea. Force every parking lot to have chargers, and every fuel station to have fast chargers, problem solved.

      (Business Owner) ”Please define ‘force’ for me. I’d like to know if I’m reaching for a pen or a sword.”

      • Probably for a pen to write checks. There are multiple locations that have passed laws requiring property owners which have 80+ parking spaces to put in covered parking with solar panels. It seems like it'd be pretty easy to put in level 1 chargers (120V AC) from that. I'd also add a sign that it only works during daylight hours. :)

        Of course, of the laws I've seen to do that, none of them have required chargers (so far), so you could take the electricity from those panels and pipe it to your building to run

  • For decades now German politicians have bowed to steel, automotive and Russian gas, while hollowing out the working and middle class. Look at schroder and his sellout that merkel continued.
    They weakened the EU defenses with toxic pacifism, and they stifled progress. And now they are doing it again with EVs because they failed to catch up to modern technologies and markets, for 2-3 decades. Again they are throwing their weight around and making things worse for everyone except themselves and their cronies.
    Al

  • You can't ban petrol cars until they are already almost extinct anyways. Current EV market share in the EU is about 15%. If you banned petrol cars tomorrow, there'd be a huge problem because automakers cannot switch from 85% petrol to 100% EV overnight. There also isn't charging infrastructure for every car to suddenly switch to electric. By the time there is sufficient capacity to ban petrol, EVs would already be at 90% market share and the "Ban" wouldn't be very meaningful because it would only impact a s

    • by 0xG ( 712423 )

      You can't ban petrol cars until they are already almost extinct anyways. Current EV market share in the EU is about 15%. If you banned petrol cars tomorrow, there'd be a huge problem because automakers cannot switch from 85% petrol to 100% EV overnight.

      Ten years is not overnight.

      • No, but if in 10 years time EV marketshare isn't close to 100%, then a ban taking effect would require an overnight transition. A post-dated ban creates no compliance incentive. It can't be enforced if there is no compliance.

        • But they were notified in 2023 such that they will have had 12 years to change ... there is no "post-dated ban". The auto makers should be transitioning their fleet in that time, which is what moves the market share. There is "no compliance" only if the auto makers willfully don't comply by not planning and doing. Most of them already have at least a few EV models. They just have to create and build more and stop worrying about their yearly bonuses for a few years. It's all technically doable, the auto make

          • They were "notified", but nothing was there to force them to change their product lineup or force consumers to buy what they were selling. The automakers knew full well that if they chose to do nothing (or do very little) until 2035 the ban could not take effect. You are never going to get a for-profit business to do something out of the goodness of their hearts. There has to be an economic incentive.

            I mentioned Norway in my original post. They did it without bans. Their strategy was to make gas cars unecon

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