Italy and Germany rebel and defend themselves by continuing to sell super-luxury cars even if they pollute

The European Union approved the one on the continent at the beginning of the year cars with combustion engines could no longer be sold from 1 January 2035. The provision was approved by all the competent authorities. Following the European Commission’s proposal, the European Parliament and the 27 governments of the bloc voted in favour.

everything has been done in the absence of formal approval, the signature of the ambassadors of the 27 in Brussels for its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. This last step is a formality because it never occurs to anyone that an ambassador could go against his government.

That period of weeks between the approval of the governments and the signature of the ambassadors luxury automakers took advantage of this press and his lobbying worked.

Contrary to what his ministers had voted, the German and Italian ambassadors informed the provisional presidency of the Council of the European Union, held by Sweden until 30 June, that they could not sign. Swedish diplomacy canceled the signature without dying.

The near-passed legislation says that automakers can continue to sell combustion engine cars until December 31, 2034. From then on, these cars can continue to circulate and be sold on the used market, but new cars cannot be sold.

Therefore those companies will start in the next few years stop developing new models of combustion engines.

Community sources reported this weekend that luxury brands such as Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini or Maserati they lobbied successfully and their governments stopped when their ministers had already voted in favor of the new rule.

In Italy, the whole government seems to agree with these companies.

Split in the German government

In Germany it is more complex. The third leg of the coalition executive, the Liberals, defends the luxury carmakers. The first two, the social democrat and the environmentalist, want the ban to be approved.

Those luxury brands ask for an exception. They want it to be possible from 2035 to continue selling cars with combustion engines that use the fuels that their marketing calls e-fuels OR synthetic electrofuelswhich are created fuels without oil as raw material but what generate emissions contaminants when used in a car engine.

Its producers claim it its impact on the climate is neutral. His explanation ensures that they are created by combining captured carbon dioxide with hydrogen extracted from water in a process for which they promise to use electricity from renewable sources.

That’s how they create that fuel. But when used in a car it gives off polluting carbon dioxide. They say that having used carbon dioxide in its production makes it climate neutral.

The method has been around since 1925 and was used by the Nazi military industry to create liquid fuels from coal during WWII when I had almost no oil. Formula 1 will use them in their cars from 2026 to make believe that you participate in the energy transition. And to serve luxury car brands to promote those fuels.

Mercedes and BMW, against

The vast majority of European car manufacturers, even those that produce some cars close to or exceeding 100,000 euros and that have models that can be even more expensive than a Porsche or a Maserati, brands such as Mercedes-Benz or BMWThey believe the exception is a mistake because it sends a bad signal to the industry, which is already fully involved in the development of the next generation of electric cars.

Those who reject the exception also note that these synthetic fuels it would be more expensive than traditional and they would be far from anyone’s reach, even if it doesn’t seem to be the criterion that anyone buying a Ferrari will take into account in the first place.

But that buyer of a Ferrari might be wondering if he would buy that car if it no longer had the characteristic engine noise that their models have today.

electric engines they are much quieter. Furthermore, the industry assures that by 2035 the production capacity of synthetic fuels in Europe could reach 2% of cars if the number of cars remains stable over the next 12 years.

Brussels, especially for clarion