The European Parliament's Environment Committee has voted to water down the European Union's 2035 combustion-engine phaseout. Lawmakers approved the plan on November 4, 2026, by a vote of 48 in favor, 30 against and two abstentions, backing a text that would let gas-powered cars stay on sale in reduced numbers past that date.

The committee's text would cut the 2035 CO2-reduction target for new passenger cars from a full 100 percent down to 87.5 percent, with a similar exemption for vans.

Nothing has changed yet for buyers or automakers. This is a negotiating position, not a new law.

For passenger cars, the committee proposal would lower the 2035 fleet-wide emissions target from a full phaseout to an 87.5 percent reduction versus 2021 levels. Part of the remaining gap can be covered with credits for using low-carbon steel made in the EU, which the committee limits to 7.5 percent of the reference target. That brings the effective figure closer to 95 percent.

Vans get their own numbers, and they diverge further from what's currently on the books. The committee set a 2030 target of 35 percent, well short of the European Commission's own 40 percent proposal and a steep step down from the 50 percent reduction vans face under the rules already in force.

By 2035, the committee would cut the van target from a full 100 percent down to 80 percent, with the same low-carbon-steel credit mechanism available, again capped at 7.5 percent.

Automakers had been split on the original ban when the EU's decision to cancel the combustion ban first split the industry's reaction.

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