EU-Germany agreement on combustion engine cars

FRANKFURT/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission and Germany have reached an agreement on the future of combustion engine cars, European and German leaders announced on Saturday.

Germany, where the automobile sector has a significant economic weight, blocked at the last moment an agreement at European level on the ban from 2035 on the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines, a measure intended to limit emissions of CO2 in the fight against climate change.

Berlin wanted to obtain a guarantee that models with combustion engines could still be marketed beyond this date if they run on synthetic fuels.

“We have reached an agreement with Germany on the future use of synthetic fuels in cars,” Frans Timmermans, European Commission vice-president responsible for climate issues, announced on Twitter.

German Transport Minister Volker Wissing, for his part, said that “the way is clear” following the agreement reached on Friday evening.

“Vehicles with internal combustion engines will still be able to benefit from a first registration after 2035 if their tanks are filled exclusively with carbon neutral fuels,” he wrote on Twitter.

(Written by Tom Sims and Kate Abnett, French version Bertrand Boucey)