The EU could be on the verge of scrapping the proposed ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in a move that would send a seismic wave through the car industry.
President of the European People’s Party (the largest party in European Parliament), Manfred Weber, told German newspaper, Bild, that the EU will instead impose strict emissions reductions on new vehicles, rather than a complete ban on combustion engines.
“For new registrations from 2035 onwards, a 90 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions will now be mandatory for car manufacturers’ fleet targets, instead of 100 per cent,” Weber said.
So what does all of this mean in practice? Well, a 90 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions could enable efficient plug-in hybrid models to be sold in the EU after 2035, as well as even more climate-friendly full EVs.
At this time, it’s unknown exactly when the EU will make this pivotal announcement. Perhaps the biggest uncertainty, however, is whether the UK will follow suit; Keir Starmer’s Labour administration have already in the last year restored the 2030 ban on the sale of new pure-petrol and diesel cars, with a requirement that everything sold after 2035 must be fully zero-emissions.
Until recently, electric car sales have been growing strongly and are up 26 per cent for 2025 to date, but the rate of growth has slowed in recent months with November sales up just 3.6 per cent on 2024.
Many manufacturers are also struggling to hit ZEV mandate targets that require 28 per cent of their sales to be zero-emission vehicles in 2025 and 33 per cent in 2026.
