EU proposal: No more combustion engines in new company and rental cars

Contents

The facts have been on the table for years: if CO₂ emissions are to be reduced, this is not feasible without the two biggest factors in the private sector – Housing and transport . Both areas are sensitive, as they are generally the largest expenditure items for private consumers. In the transport sector, battery electric cars could make a decisive contribution to decarbonization. Registration figures are rising in the EU, but there is currently no sign of a widespread switchover. The EU Commission is preparing to allow rental car providers and large companies to only register electric cars from 2030, writes Bild am Sonntag. However, there is virtually no chance of such an idea being implemented.

No decision has been made

Brussels has been considering for some time how CO₂ emissions in the transport sector could be reduced. However, the EU Commission is not being specific and, according to its own information, has not yet made a decision on possible climate proposals for commercial registrations. A spokesperson for the authority said that the industry had expressed a desire to specify CO₂ standards for company fleets. They are currently working on a corresponding impact assessment. When asked by dpa, he emphasized: "No decisions have been made at a political level." The company would not comment on the details of a possible proposal.

In a paper published in March, the Commission had already announced that it would present a legislative proposal for reducing emissions from company cars by the end of the year, taking various technologies into account. The leverage would be huge, especially in Germany. Around two thirds of all new registrations are commercial. Even if only large companies and providers of rental cars are mentioned in the plans, a significant proportion of the new car fleet remains. In other words, this would be a massive intervention in the market, even if it would only be brought forward in practice. After all, combustion engines powered by petrol or diesel will no longer be permitted in new cars in the EU after 2034 anyway.

No ban on combustion engines

This decision was hard-won and conservatives are still not happy with it. The term "combustion engine ban" is used time and again. But this is only correct in a figurative sense. Because the combustion engine is not being banned. The CO₂ fleet limit value will be set to zero. How the industry achieves this is up to it. As things stand today, this is not possible with combustion engines, so battery electric drives are the future. However, if mass-compatible alternatives to electric drives were to emerge, they would still have a chance. The problem is that the window of opportunity is getting smaller and smaller and such an alternative to the electric car is not foreseeable.

Criticism from the CSU and VDA

Criticism of the threat of mandatory electric cars for company fleets was not long in coming. The German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) was already one of the loudest critics of the decision to ban combustion engines in new cars from 2035. "New requirements – such as the discussed e-car obligation for company fleets or rental car providers from 2030 – show that the necessary realization to improve the framework conditions has still not arrived in Brussels," VDA President Hildegard Müller told the Berliner Morgenpost. The association firmly rejects this new regulatory offensive. MEP Markus Ferber (CSU) is also calling for this not to happen. The Federal Ministry of Transport says: "We strictly reject this." This position has also been communicated to car rental companies.

Neither the EU Commission, the European Parliament nor the governments of the nation states currently have even a remote majority in favor of intervening so deeply in the market. The powerful industry will also make it clear through its channels how it feels about these plans. It is therefore unlikely that the proposal will reach the next political level in exactly this form or even have the prospect of clearing all the hurdles to implementation.

(mfz)