Traffic: Wissing confident in the combustion dispute
Traffic
Wissing confident in the combustion dispute
Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing is optimistic about the combustion engine dispute. photo
© Sebastian Gollnow/dpa
In the dispute over new cars with combustion engines, the Federal Minister of Transport urged that cars powered by e-fuels should also be allowed to be registered after 2035. Now there seems to be some progress in the debate.
In the dispute over the future of new cars with combustion engines, the Federal Minister of Transport shows himself Volker Wissing confident that a viable solution will now be found. The FDP politician told the German Press Agency that they had consulted closely with the EU Commission and, after careful consideration, submitted a constructive proposal for a solution. “We assume that this not only satisfactorily answers all content-related questions, but also the legal ones.”
Wissing added: “The approval of newly registered vehicles with internal combustion engineswhich are fueled exclusively with synthetic fuels, nothing should stand in the way even after 2035.” It is now expected that the EU Commission will issue a corresponding declaration, name clear time targets and initiate the process for corresponding legal acts.
On Thursday evening, the ministry sent a letter in reply to the latest proposed solutions from the EU Commission sent to Brussels, according to government circles in Berlin. At the beginning of the week, their proposals had become known. Accordingly, the authority defined a draft of criteria for the approval of new vehicles that are exclusively operated with CO2-neutral fuels.
The background is a fundamental agreement between the European Parliament and EU states, according to which only zero-emission vehicles will be allowed in the EU from 2035 new car may be allowed. However, Germany is urging that new cars with internal combustion engines that run on e-fuels – i.e. climate-neutral artificial fuels that are produced with green electricity – be permitted after this. A confirmation of the agreement by the EU states, which was planned for early March, was therefore initially prevented by Germany.
