Auto-industry narratives are ratcheting up ahead of this Friday’s meeting between car makers and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen over the forthcoming petrol and diesel ban.
The talks will see car makers discuss CO2 targets and the mandate that will require car makers to sell only EVs, amid growing calls for the plans to be changed.
Generally, bosses from EV-focussed brands are happy for sales of new petrol and diesel cars to be banned from 2030 in the UK, and 2035 in European Union countries, while several traditional car makers are pushing for changes to the rules.
Among the sceptics is Stellantis, owner of Fiat, Peugeot, Vauxhall, Citroen, Alfa Romeo and Jeep, which recently announced it will no longer stop producing cars with internal combustion engines (ICE) in 2030, as was previously planned.
This week’s Munich Motor Show saw Stellantis’ European head, Jean-Philippe Imparato, say EU CO2 targets are “no longer achievable by any car maker in the industry”, according to Reuters.
BMW’s chief executive, Oliver Zipse last week said that the EU is making “a huge mistake” by going down an EV-only route from 2035, telling Politico: “I think we’re doing ourselves a disservice by choosing an almost arbitrary point in the future where we say all industries have to align themselves with [rules banning CO2 emissions from new cars] by then,”
Zipse added, though, that he considered it “an absolute absurdity of today’s regulation that fuel manufacturers, the Shells and BPs of this world, have no targets”.
The BMW boss’ statement follows a letter sent to the EU by Mercedes’ chief executive warning the ICE ban is “no longer feasible”, while Nissan has previously called for “urgent action” from the UK government over ever-increasing quotas for EV sales.
Some car makers are embracing the ban, though. Michael Lohscheller, chief executive of Polestar, the EV firm based in Sweden but owned by Chinese interests, said the EU would be going “completely the wrong way” were it to change the rules, according to Autocar.
Meanwhile Håkan Samuelsson, chairman of sibling brand Volvo, told Bloomberg that while the market may need plug-in hybrids and that the switch to an EV-only world “may take some years beyond 2030”, he considers that “the industry will be electric – there’s no turning back”.
Samuelsson added that continued pressure from Chinese firms will shake up the established order, warning that there will be a “restructuring” of the market. “Some companies will adapt to new circumstances and survive. Others will not”, he said.
UK rules demanding 28% of all new cars sold here in 2025 be electric are set to be missed by a significant margin, as year-to-date EV sales stand at just 21.9%. Manufacturers will be fined £15,000 per petrol and diesel car sold over quota, though they can escape these penalties by paying for ‘credits’ from manufacturers that have exceeded the 28% sales targets. Firms in a position to sell such credits are generally considered to be pure-EV players, such as US firm Tesla, and Chinese car maker BYD.
