The dispute over the combustion engine end between the EU Commission and Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (52, FDP) has been settled. The federal government and the Commission have reached an agreement on the future approval of cars fueled with e-fuels, as Wissing and EU Environment Commissioner Frans Timmermans (61) announced independently of one another on Saturday. Wissing and the FDP had blocked the EU-wide ban on new vehicles with fossil-fuel combustion engines planned from 2035 because of e-fuels.
“We have an understanding with Germany on the future use of e-fuels in cars,” Timmermans wrote on Twitter. Work on the planned regulation of CO2 emissions from cars would continue and should be completed “as soon as possible,” announced the Commission Vice-President The EU Commission will then take the necessary legal steps regarding e-fuels.
Climate-neutral fuel required
Wissing emphasized that this ensured openness to technology in an important point. “This paves the way for vehicles with combustion engines that only use CO2-neutral fuels to be registered after 2035,” said Wissing. To this end, “concrete procedural steps and a concrete timetable have been bindingly fixed,” Wissing explained. This should be completed by autumn 2024.
Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (55, Greens) welcomed the agreement. “It’s good that this deadlock is over. Anything else would have severely damaged both confidence in European procedures and in Germany’s reliability in European politics,” she said in Berlin. The solution that has now been found takes into account the concerns of the FDP without jeopardizing the previously negotiated compromise on the future EU rules for cars as a whole. It is about the so-called CO2 fleet limits for the vehicles.
“The automotive industry now has clarity for the switch to electromobility,” emphasized Lemke. “We have always said that e-fuels will play an important role. Especially for those areas that cannot easily switch to efficient electric motors,” added the Green politician.
Critics complain that the production of e-fuels requires a relatively large amount of energy and that fuels are scarce. They would be needed more urgently in aviation and shipping.
Exception for synthetic fuels
On Friday it had there have been conflicting reports about an impending agreement. The EU Parliament and the member states had already agreed in October that from 2035 onwards no new cars with combustion engines would be allowed to be registered. However, Germany stalled the decision at the last minute to negotiate an exemption for synthetic fuels. However, these are considered expensive and inefficient. Berlin’s actions had triggered considerable criticism from EU partners.
Wissing, on the other hand, sees “enormous potential” for synthetic e-fuels, which should ideally be climate-neutral, as he confirmed in the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” on Saturday. There are also estimates that their currently extremely high price could fall in the future. Many car manufacturers, on the other hand, do not see any great opportunities for e-fuels.