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The EU ought to scrap its whole ban on promoting new automobiles with combustion engines after 2035 to assist protect its car trade, the chief of the largest political group within the European parliament has stated.
Manfred Weber, who heads the European Individuals’s occasion of Fee president Ursula von der Leyen, informed the Monetary Instances that individuals ought to have the ability to purchase petrol and diesel automobiles so long as the carbon emitted is offset.
“I take advantage of a classical combustion engine, with classical gasoline, however then pay for storing CO₂ within the soil — in all probability that could be a enterprise mannequin for the long run,” he stated.
Different choices may embody hybrids and vary extenders, he stated.
His intervention comes because the EU debates the way forward for its 2035 ban on new combustion engines given the turmoil within the automotive trade. A number of main European carmakers and automotive half suppliers together with Volkswagen and Bosch introduced hundreds of job cuts final yr as they struggled with rising prices and competitors from low-cost Chinese language imports.
US imports of automobiles have in the meantime been subjected to 25 per cent tariffs by the Trump administration.
The UK watered down its personal electrical car targets earlier this month, reducing punitive fines to assist the automotive trade. Whereas the 2030 phaseout date for brand new petrol and diesel automobiles stays in place, the federal government will now permit producers to promote full hybrid and plug-in hybrid automobiles till 2035.
Acea, the European automotive trade physique, has estimated that €67bn value of automotive exports, primarily based on 2024 numbers, can be impacted by the US levies.
After heavy lobbying from the trade, Brussels in March granted carmakers a small reprieve from stricter emissions targets by averaging them out over a three-year interval to 2027, however the 2035 ban nonetheless stands.
Wopke Hoekstra, the EU’s EPP local weather commissioner, has repeatedly underscored the bloc’s dedication to the 2035 regulation. It is because of be reviewed in 2026 however Brussels has promised to “speed up” the work underneath strain from carmakers and member states similar to Germany and Italy, that are pushing for exceptions for various fuels comprised of renewable sources.
The current German authorities coalition settlement additionally centered on carbon removals and credit as a approach to meet wider EU local weather targets.
Nevertheless it dedicated to the 2035 goal which permits solely combustion engines powered by renewably generated “e-fuels”.
A senior EU official stated that together with carbon offsets as a motive for exemption or permitting hybrids and range-extenders have been “unique” choices that will be “extremely unlikely”.
Sluggish gross sales of electrical automobiles within the EU have already picked up within the first two months of this yr, rising 28.4 per cent in comparison with the identical interval in 2024, in response to figures from Acea.
In Germany, Weber’s residence nation, new electrical car registrations have been up 41 per cent year-on-year in January and February, Acea stated.
Weber stated that the EPP wished “to indicate the world that you would be able to have financial development along with ecological accountability. And however, now we have to do that in a means that’s totally technologically impartial. That’s what we stand for.
“There are lots of new applied sciences now,” he stated, arguing that trade must be allowed to innovate so long as EU carbon discount targets are met.
“I don’t know and I don’t care as a politician. It’s as much as the enterprise to be artistic.”
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