EU lawmakers seek to guarantee ICE Tech into next decade

They could be preparing to harden attempts to enable the usage of internal-combustion engines in newly assembled automobiles beyond the eradication of all CO2-emitting cars in 2035 – Europe’s oldest and largest party of lawmakers.

Germany already won a proposed stay of execution of ICE technology when the European Commission last year committed to generate a legal avenue for selling new cars that can only run on synthetic fuels, commonly referred to as e-fuels, and carbon-neutral biofuels that are literally fossil fuel surrogates.

Now the centre-right European People’s Party – EPP which was an ally to the Socialists on the issue has plans to turn this promise into proper legislation in a document, a draft seen by the Reuters news agency. This week in Portugal, the party’s legislators are in a meeting debating on what should form the party’s policies of the official 5-year term of the European Union Parliament.

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The draft document of priorities states that the ‘The rules for CO2 reduction for new cars and vans to have options for the use of other zero-emission fuels post 2035 must be revised.’ The document also supplements the idea that the group intends to “remove the ban on the internal combustion engine but work on advanced ICE technologies.”

This means that carmakers can carry on with the advancements in ICE technology for more than the next decade using carbon-neutral fuels and most probably equipped with chips that would prevent the use of standard gas or diesel.

It would also help to ease current industry concern that recent low sales of battery-electric vehicles indicate that many consumers will never consider them suitable for their mobility needs. In its turn, the move would be beneficial to the expanded application of the hybrid powertrains as well.

The speaker of the European Parliament is also the EPP delegation, the newly-elected two-term holder, Ursula Von der Leyen, the former German defense minister whose task is to convince other groups, such as the socialist and democratic ones, which are against the weakening of Europe’s climate change policies.