A German SME takes legal action against the end of thermal engines planned for 2035

2023-09-25 20:30:00

Monday September 25, a German SME which develops synthetic fuels indicated that it was challenging the ban on combustion engines for cars sold from 2035 before the European courts. According to it, this regulation would be counterproductive.

At the end of March 2023, the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) definitively approved the end of thermal engines in new cars from 2035. This is a flagship measure of the European plan which aims for carbon neutrality for 2050.

Last July, several subsidiaries of the company Lühmann Gruppe, specializing in the production of synthetic fuels and their distribution in Germany, filed “a complaint before the European Court of Justice against the tightening of CO2 emissions standards”. According to their statement, the EU’s approach “inappropriately hinders the establishment of an innovative renewable fuels industry, which could contribute to the achievement of climate goals.”

In other words, synthetic fuel (producing fuel from CO2 from industrial activities) could well replace fossil fuels, but this would require continuing to market thermal cars.

For the moment, this idea is considered too expensive and too ineffective to fight against climate change, particularly compared to electric vehicles.

The issue of synthetic fuels was, however, the subject of intense debate between Member States before the vote. Germany, for which the automobile industry is a pillar of the economy, had even threatened to block the procedure for the Commission to relax the rule on these fuels.

Finally, Brussels committed to opening the way more clearly to synthetic fuels, in a separate proposal which should be validated by the fall of 2024. The initial text remains unchanged for the moment.

Too weak a compromise, according to the Lühmann group, which employs several hundred people in Germany: “Carbon neutral fuels offer the only possibility of integrating vehicles equipped with combustion engines, which will continue to dominate vehicle fleets in the long term. long term, in efforts to protect the climate”, assures the group’s CEO Lorenz Kiene.