A deal between France and Germany to weaken European Union car emissions rules agreed at the end of last week risks leaving the EU behind on key mobility technologies such as batteries or bidirectional charging, critics from opposition parties and environmental groups have said.
Katharina Dröge, co-leader of the Green party’s parliamentary group in the Bundestag in report by news site ntv said “while China is racing towards the future, Merz and Macron are causing chaos and uncertainty for the market and consumers.”
Anna Krajinska, senior director at clean transport advocacy group Transport & Environment (T&E), called the deal “a historic mistake,” arguing that slowing the shift to EVs is “the worst possible move” at a time when drivers face high petrol and diesel prices and the European auto industry is under pressure from Chinese rivals.
At the end of last year, following a push from the government of Germany and Italy and by the automotive industry, the Commission already proposed loosening the EU’s effective ban on the sale of new combustion engine cars from 2035, cutting the target for new cars’ CO2 emissions to 90 percent below 2021 levels instead of 100 percent.
Carmakers could continue selling plug-in hybrids, range extenders and conventional cars after 2035 if they offset the remaining emissions by using low-carbon steel made in the EU, or with e-fuels and biofuels.
Under the deal between Germany and France, which had been in the making for weeks , the 90-percent target would be implemented, but without the requirement to compensate the remaining 10 percent, reported Reuters .
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