E-fuels for new combustion cars must be 100% climate neutral: EU Commission draft

 

E-fuels must be climate-neutral for new vehicles with combustion engines to be sold after 2035, according to a new draft regulation – which resolves an internal dispute within the EU Commission – seen by Euractiv.

In March 2023, EU countries adopted updated rules for new cars and vans, allowing only zero-emission vehicles to be registered as of 2035, de-facto banning cars with internal combustion engines from registering after that date. However, after a showdown with Germany, an exception was included, allowing the registration of new combustion engine vehicles even after 2035, provided that they run “exclusively on CO2 neutral fuels”.

For this to be implemented, the Commission committed to creating a new vehicle category of combustion engine cars, which can only be filled with synthetic fuels, known as e-fuels. (...)