For the first time, a German company wants to sue against the decision to phase out combustion engines at EU level. This is what the “Welt am Sonntag” reports. The Lühmann Group, which is active in trading synthetic fuels, wants to overturn parts of the EU regulation passed in March, according to which newly registered cars must be emission-free from 2035.
It sounds “nice to only allow emission-free cars,” said Lorenz Kiene, the head of the Lühmann Group, to the newspaper. However, the EU’s plan is “driven by ideology, not facts.” The Lühmann Group particularly criticizes the planned ban on combustion engines because the EU only considers cars that do not emit any exhaust gases to be emission-free. But it makes “no sense to only measure emissions from the exhaust,” said company boss Kiene. Instead, CO₂ emissions should be “recorded over the entire life cycle of a vehicle.”
According to the e-fuel dealer’s ideas, combustion engines that only use climate-friendly fuel should continue to be permitted – and the fuels should also be counted towards the fleet limits that car manufacturers in Europe must meet. Only then, says Kiene, would companies actually build such vehicles.
Combustion engines that run on so-called e-fuels are not emission-free. However, because the CO₂ required to produce the fuel is taken from industrial plants or from the air, they are considered climate-neutral in the balance sheet if the electricity used for production was produced using renewable energies.
The EU Commission apparently presents a strict proposal
Actually, from 2035 onwards, only CO₂-free new cars will be allowed to be registered in the European Union (EU). Germany On the initiative of Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP), an exception was made so that cars with combustion engines could, at least theoretically, continue to run on e-fuels.
The EU Commission is currently working on implementing the compromise and the details are eagerly awaited. A first draft law was available to the Reuters news agency on Friday. Accordingly, the engines should actually only be able to be fueled with completely CO₂-neutral e-fuels. This can be done using devices to monitor the chemical properties of the fuel. The proposal is expected to be published later this year.
According to the interest group “eFuel Alliance”, the legal plan requires a 100 percent reduction in CO₂ emissions, which includes the entire value chain including the transport of fuels. “This means that the ban on the internal combustion engine will remain in 2035,” criticized the association, which, in addition to e-fuel manufacturers, also includes companies in the car and petroleum industries. “As long as transport and distribution are not also secured using renewable energies, a complete reduction in emissions cannot be achieved,” explained association boss Ralf Diemer.
Climate activists skeptical
Many climate activists are skeptical about synthetic fuels overall. Cars powered by e-fuels “could have just as low emissions as electric cars,” said Falko Ueckerdt from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research to “Welt am Sonntag”. The narrative of e-fuels in road transport still threatens to harm climate protection. The narrative is “unrealistic” and delays the necessary transformation towards electric cars, said Ueckerdt. The fuels are needed elsewhere, for example for airplanes and ships, which can hardly be operated with electricity.
LufthansaCEO Carsten Spohr recently made a similar statement at the IAA: In the foreseeable future, just enough synthetic fuels can be produced to cover the airlines’ needs. They have hardly any alternatives for their aircraft to save CO₂ – while cars can easily be electrified.