Germany will plead with the EU to allow plug-in hybrids and highly efficient conventional cars to be sold in the bloc even after the effective ban on gasoline and diesel passenger cars in 2035, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Friday as the government looks to prop up its massive but currently ailing auto manufacturing industry.
The ruling coalition in Germany has decided to seek some exemptions from the hard deadline of 2035, the chancellor of Europe’s biggest economy said on Friday.
In 2023, the EU member states approved an emissions regulation under which the bloc will end sales of new carbon dioxide-emitting cars and vans in 2035.
Merz said he would send a letter today to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen seeking reprieve for some technologies as the ruling coalition understands “how precarious the situation in the automotive industry is.”
The auto industry in Germany, Europe’s largest and most important, has suffered in recent months from the U.S. tariffs, the Chinese curbs on rare earth exports, falling EU demand, and competition from the cheaper vehicles made in China.
The German government wants to maintain “the competitiveness of the automotive industry without compromising climate targets,” Merz said today, as carried by Bloomberg.
“Our common goal should be to achieve innovation-friendly and technology-neutral regulations that reconcile climate protection and industrial competition,” the German chancellor said.
As early as last year, Germany’s car manufacturing giant BMW warned that the EU ban on the sale of gasoline and diesel cars from 2035 is “no longer realistic” amid slow EV sales, as the European auto industry will see a “massive shrinking” with such a ban.
In June this year, Germany’s key car industry association VDA called on Germany and the EU “to enable the flexibility and technological openness required to achieve climate targets” to ensure the industry’s competitiveness.
“Brussels must respond to the changing global situation. Achieving the ambitious climate targets must be strategically linked to maintaining competitiveness,” VDA said.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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