The road now seems clear for the definitive adoption of the ban on registration of thermal vehicles in Europe from 2035. But the green light for the 27, which could come as early as Tuesday March 28, will probably come at the cost a last-minute concession granted to Berlin: cars running on synthetic fuels should escape the new legislation.
This is the whole meaning of the agreement announced on Saturday March 25 on Twitter by the European Commissioner for the Environment Frans Timmermans.
We have found an agreement with Germany on the future use of efuels in cars.
We will work now on getting the CO2-standards for cars regulation adopted as soon as possible, and the Commission will follow-up swiftly with the necessary legal steps to implement recital 11.
— Frans Timmermans (@TimmermansEU) March 25, 2023
The Swedish presidency of the Union announced that this agreement would be studied on Monday 27 March by the ambassadors of the Member States, before being submitted the next day to their energy ministers.
Domestic policy considerations
“Vehicles equipped with a combustion engine can be registered after 2035 if they only use neutral fuels in terms of CO2 emissions”has already welcomed the German transport minister, the liberal Volker Wissing.
Seeking to recover – after a series of electoral debacles – by setting itself up as the “rescuer” of the heat engine, his party, the FPD, led the German coalition government in early March in a singular move which irritated many of its partners. , including France. After having been one of the drivers of a transition to all-electric by 2035 (Member States and European Parliament negotiators had agreed on this text, approved in mid-February by MEPs), Berlin demanded, before any final signature, that an exemption be granted to cars running on synthetic fuels.
Only one factory in the world
These fuels are produced without petroleum or biomass but from CO2 and hydrogen. Hydrogen is extracted from water by electrolysis, a chemical reaction obtained by an electric current. CO2 is captured directly from the air or from industrial emissions. The aim is that the combustion of these fuels does not emit more carbon than the quantity used for their production. And also that the electricity massively mobilized in this process be drawn from renewable sources, at least low carbon.
Problem: this technology is still in its infancy. There is currently only one plant, located in Chile, which produces synthetic fuels intended for marketing. A project supported by Porsche, a German manufacturer. Scarcity of supply and therefore excessive prices make experts say that this solution will probably be reserved for luxury vehicles.
Environmental NGOs also point to other shortcomings, in particular the fact that the use of synthetic fuels emits as much toxic NOx (nitrogen oxides) and much more carbon monoxide and ammonia than that of fuel conventional E10.
A bad sign
The coup de theater orchestrated by Berlin and its likely outcome should not fundamentally change the strategy of manufacturers. Many regret that the Europeans initially chose to impose electricity on them, rather than setting them a decarbonization objective and leaving them the choice of one technology or another to achieve it. Nevertheless, all of them are already heavily involved in the battle for electrification.
This mini-crisis, which is about to end, is nevertheless a bad signal sent to manufacturers, while Volkswagen, seduced by American subsidies, has just announced that it is putting a project to build a battery factory in Europe on hold. .
It could also make consumers and decision-makers believe (for example the communities mobilized for the deployment of charging stations) that heat engines still have a bright future. At least that other ruts could still appear on the European all-electric highway.