Deadline For Europe's Combustion Engine Ban Isn't Moving

A year ago, we reported on the European Union's plan to bring an end to the sale of all combustion cars by 2035. This proposal was more aggressive than all that came before, and many opposed the idea. The European Union's environmental committee backed this proposal, and even Ford went on record supporting the petition to ban the sale of internal combustion engine (ICE) cars. Still, industry groups lobbied against the 2035 target, saying that the goal was too early to commit to due to the fact that charging infrastructure is far away from supporting these regulations. Nevertheless, the European Parliament voted on Wednesday to reject an amendment that would have eased the requirements from a 100% ban to 90%, reports Automotive News Europe.

However, the law has not been passed yet. The vote simply confirms the parliament's stance for upcoming negotiations with individual EU countries on the final law. But if these nations vote in favor of the ban, then the death certificate of the gas engine will effectively be signed, despite the protests of BMW and others.

It's not all doom and gloom for Europeans contemplating the cost of transitioning to an electric future, as another EU law will require member states to install millions of EV chargers. "Purchasing and driving zero-emission cars will become cheaper for consumers," said Jan Huitema, parliament's lead negotiator on the policy.

Disappointingly, AN reports that "lawmakers also voted against an amendment that would allow carmakers to buy credits for so-called e-fuels" (synthetic fuels), despite the fact that such technology could keep everyone happy by making the combustion as clean as an EV, if not more so. Hopefully, Porsche will continue its work on synthetic fuels and Hyundai will advance the technology too, but if the EU decides to kill combustion anyway, that means the joy of revving out the naturally aspirated engine in the back of the Porsche 911 GT3 will become little more than a fond memory. Fingers crossed that something of a compromise can be found.